Passengers falling in front of a train is not so rare in Mumbai. Ten people die on the tracks every day on suburban railway system.
Some among those who fall on the tracks miraculously survive too. CCTV cameras at railway stations have often shown how some railway passengers literally cheat death.
On June 23, Ghatkopar station on the Central Railway saw a similar incident when a woman jumped in front of a train but when the train had passed, she was nowhere to be seen. Passengers were flabbergasted and failed to understand where she was. The CCTV cameras once again provided the answers. CCTV footage on the adjacent platform showed the woman exiting the station minutes after she fell under the train.
A closer examination of the CCTV footage shows the lady was flat on the tracks when she jumped in front of the train. Once the train stopped the woman, officials believe must have come out and then made a dash for the adjacent platform. Three minutes later, the woman was caught on CCTV on the adjacent problem exiting the station, which confirmed that she was alive and had indeed managed to pull off a miraculous and daring escape.
This episode comes nearly two months after a similar incident involving 19-year-old Pratiksha Natekar who also had a brush with death. The video of her standing on the tracks and getting hit by a train engine was widely circulated on social media. It was even reported that she was on earphones and didn’t hear the train coming. Ms Natekar had told NDTV that at the time, she was listening to music on her cellphone. And she has appealed to all to learn from her experience.
“I would appeal to everyone to not plug in earphones while using the railways. Don’t use headphones while boarding a train or waiting for a train,” Ms Natekar, told NDTV. In fact, it is best to use a foot-over bridge to cross tracks, added the girl, whose survival has been hailed as nothing less than miraculous.