Death toll in AP train disaster revised to 13; passengers recall tragic moments after accident
The authorities revised the death toll from 14 to 13 after they realised they had wrongly counted the dismembered body of a man as two victims
The death toll in the collision involving two trains in Andhra Pradesh was revised to 13, after authorities on Tuesday (October 31) said they realised they had wrongly counted the dismembered body of a man as two victims.
"On Monday, we got almost two halves of one person. We counted those halves as two persons. But during the autopsy it emerged that it was one person," an official source told PTI.
The railways accordingly revised the death toll in the accident at Kantakapalli, about 40 km from Visakhapatnam, as 13, down from the 14 given out two days ago.
The Sunday night accident, when the Palasa Passenger train hit the Rayagada Passenger from behind causing three coaches to derail, also injured some 50 persons.
Passengers who survived the disaster with or without injuries thanked God for their miraculous escape.
The accident
"At around 7:10 pm, we felt a major jolt. Everything happened in seconds. My six-year-old daughter who was seated on a top berth fell down. There were screams for help and cries all around the coaches,” recalled Dilip Kumar Patro.
“Initially, I did not understand what had happened but later realized it was an accident," he said after reaching Raygada station on Monday.
Patro, from Odisha's Rayagada district, was returning home with his wife, daughter and three others when the accident took place between Alamanda and Kantakapalle in the East Coast Railway Zone.
The 35-year-old man said he took his daughter and their belongings and told his wife and other family members to get off their tilted coach.
"With much difficulty and fear in our hearts, we got down from the train. I found people running near the track and two rail cars were derailed," he said.
Patro also saw someone lying under a coach, apparently dead.
According to him, there would have been more casualties had it not been a Sunday because then the train would have been more crowded.
"We thank God that we are alive today," Patro’s wife said.
Similar was the story of many others at the Rayagada railway station, who had reached there by bus from the accident site.
The railways said both up and down lines have been restored and trains have started passing the area.
(With agency inputs)
