Although one of the deadliest train accidents of recent times near Bahanaga Bazar took several lives and many family members lost their near and dear ones, a few of them were extremely lucky and almighty was kind enough for them.
Among the lucky survivors are the family members of Turia, a resident of Nawada district of Bihar. They were six along with nine others in the general compartment of the ill-fated Coromandel Express going for construction works in Tamil Nadu.
When the accident took place, their coach climbed over another coach with a high intensity impact, yet all of them were safe although thrown in the compartment.
Mukesh Turia said, “We realised our train had met with an accident. Soon, we looked for the others, especially our children and female members. We found all of them safe and we first threw the children out of the compartment into the field. Although all of us received injuries yet thank God, we are all safe.”
Ashok Turia, Goutam Turia, Balmukund Turia and Rajendra Turia –all of the same fimily— besides stating they won’t forget such a tragedy in their life, also expressed their gratitude to God for escaping miraculously from the jaws of death.
All of them moved to their hometown with the bus arrangements made by the Odisha Government.
Similarly, a five-member family from Bihar, who were travelling in the same train, had a narrow escape. Atal Bihari from Patna along with his wife Sabitri, their two daughters of 7 years’ old and 11 years’ old and a 4 years’ old son were travelling to Chennai in the S2 coach for a medical checkup of his elder daughter Mahi.
“We were all sitting together in the lower berth seats. Suddenly, we heard a huge explosion before we could realise our coach turned turtle in the pitch darkness. But by the grace of God, I found both the daughters and my husband holding the hand of our son. All are alive and safe,” said Sabitri.
Another man in his fifties of Baleswar town who used to travel regularly up to Jajpur in MST also had a providential escape from the claws of death. Brundaban Barik used to work in a private factory and on Friday he was in S2 compartment of the Coromandel Express when the collision occurred. He sustained the impact and after realising that he was safe and alive, he pulled down two others from the compartment. He further said when he felt giddiness he went to a nearby medicine store at Bahanaga and took some oral pills. However, he went to the District Headquarters Hospital subsequently for a CT scan and found no abnormality. He too thanked the almighty.
