A fortnight-long awareness campaign against keeping objects on the railway track has been launched by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), Mysuru, after a tragedy was averted recently by an alert loco pilot who managed to bring the train to a halt immediately after noticing a wooden log and steel sleeper on tracks on Mysuru-Nanjangud section.
A team of RPF personnel will be going around schools and other educational institutions, premises in the industrial area of Tandavapura and other public places including Panchayat Development Officer (PDO) to create awareness about the possible threat to life and safety of train passengers such acts can cause.
It may be mentioned here that the RPF apprehended three youths, all employees of a paper manufacturing plant situated close to the railway track, for placing the wooden log and steel sleeper on the railway track on November 12 evening. However, loco pilot Ashwini Kumar, who was operating the train between Chamarajanagar and Mysuru, noticed the obstruction in time to bring the train to a halt and avert a potential disaster.
“The awareness programme will continue for a fortnight”, according to the post commander of RPF in Mysuru.
Meanwhile, the trio, who had been arrested by the RPF soon after the incident, had been booked under various sections of Railways Act and were cooling their heels in judicial custody.
The trio, who were reportedly in an inebriated state on November 12 evening, had come out of the factory, which is situated alongside the railway track, without punching out.
Video recording
The three accused were trying to record the video of the train hitting the wooden log and steel sleeper they had placed on the track.
A mobile phone had been kept on ballast on the railway track and the video recording mode had been turned on. “They wanted to capture the impact of the train crashing on the wooden log and the steel sleeper on video in a cinematic style,” said a source.
However, when the train came to a halt, they picked up the mobile phone and fled. A few moments later one of the accused returned to the spot searching for the footwear he had left behind only to be apprehended by the RPF personnel, who had rushed to the spot.
