A train is the most common mode of transport for man to go from any one place to another. It is so exciting and interesting when we go in a train from one town to another in the country.
On the way we cross all kinds of terrain like plains, hilly areas, water expanses, and bridges over gorges and rivers. It gives the travellers a beautiful view of the entire gamut of terrain existing in the areas crossed, which is always of a wide variety. All this seen from the distance is really fascinating but, when any one of these beauties causes damage to the train or the passengers, the beauty turns into a nasty appearance.
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However, when one sits in a train bound to go thousands of kilometers to meet loved ones or to perform some duty, we can never be sure that, we will return home or even reach the destination safely.
An accident of a train has become absolutely common place now a days. When we board a train we can never be sure of what is in store for us in a train a few thousand people travel together and, if an accident occurs it is just great luck for those who survive. The trains run at such fast speed that an accident means easily hundreds of people dead or maimed for life.
I remember how I once had to face the trauma of a train accident which I was aboard, with my parents. It was day time, I think, about 4 P.M. when the train that was bound for Bhubaneshwar, with all of us on board, met with an accident.
Five of the compartments of the train got derailed when the train hit into standing goods train. Oh! I remember how we, my mothers and I fell from the second tier of our compartment and that also on the huge tanks laid down on the floor of the compartment. Both of us had lost balance when the train gave a jerk and stopped with a thud. By chance, at that time my father was in the toilet and he fell there and hit his head with the tank there. With great difficulty, he came out of the toilet with a profusely bleeding forehead and absolutely frantic in search of Mummy and me. He thought that the train had collided with another moving train which could spell a major disaster.
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However, when he came to us and found us safe though badly hurt, he asked the other passengers as to what had happened. He was told that, their train had rammed into a standing goods train and a few bogies had been derailed. Now he went down to see and with him I also went.
What I have not still understood is how, a standing train could not be detected by the train moving on its own track. Besides, I cannot understand how the goods train could be left standing on the track on which a passenger train was due. This can only be attributed to absolute negligence of the train staff and the railway staff on the whole. Such accidents are caused by sheer callousness of people concerned and those involved must be punished severely for such gross negligence.