Rourkela: Two persons were killed while three suffered critical injuries after a loco pilot engine rammed into a stationary goods train late Sunday night at Tati railway station on the Ranchi-Rourkela line in Jharkhand, about 15 km from Nuagaon in Sundargarh district.
Assistant pilot Suraj Kumar died on the spot while loco pilot Dilip Kumar Das succumbed while being taken to Ispat General Hospital (IGH) in Rourkela, according to sources.
Senior section engineer Manish Kumar and his two assistants, who were inside the loco pilot engine, sustained grievous injuries.
The three were admitted to a hospital in Ranchi.
Traffic on the route was disrupted for about four hours after the mishap. It was brought back to normalcy after the damaged locomotive and goods train were removed from the tracks.
Chakradharpur rail division authorities ordered a probe into the incident. Proceedings have been initiated against the concerned stationmaster and other three officials who were on duty, railway sources said.
The family of the deceased pilots would be given jobs in Railways within a month while financial assistance as per the Seventh Pay Commission would be extended to the kin, department sources said.According to reports, the goods train left Rourkela at about 10 pm Sunday and arrived at Tati after an hour while on its way to Hatia.
Meanwhile, an engine engaged in repair works of the rail tracks left Tati towards Kanaroa. After a few minutes, there was a breakdown in the locomotive and it started moving in reverse direction at high speed. The loco pilot and his support staff tried their best to stop the engine, but it rammed into the goods train at high speed.
The collision was so severe that the cabin of the engine was bent out of shape and the body of the loco pilot was hurled into the goods train.
On being alerted, a special team comprising Bandhamunda CMO BK Sethi, Dr S Sanga and Dr Bijay Bhagat and ARM Kunal Kumar reached the spot at midnight and launched rescue operations.
A team led by Hatia ARM joined them at about 2 am to speed up the operation. PNN
