Overhead electric wire falls on train engine, one passenger injured as he jumped down

Alok Mishra

Patna: A passenger sustained serious injuries as he jumped from South Bihar Express at Punpun Rail Bridge on the main line of Danapur division on Wednesday morning. The train was on way to Patna Junction from Jamshedpur (Jharkhand). Movement of trains on the said section remained paralysed for some hours.

Eyewitnesses said that as the South Bihar Express train left Fatuha railway station at around 8.30 am, an overhead wire snapped and fell on the engine of the train sparking fire splinters. A rumour soon spread in the bogies of the train that fire had broken out in the train. The passengers started running helter skelter in the bogies in panic. Before the driver of the train applied brakes, one of the passengers jumped from the train at Punpun Rail Bridge. He broke his waist and was rushed to local government hospital by local police from where he was referred to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH). A large number of villagers assembled on the spot. On getting information, senior officers from Danapur railway station reached there with engineers and technicians to rectify the snag.

One of the passengers said that he thought that the train had caught fire. “But nothing happened as overhead wire had fallen on the engine,” he said. Most of the passengers reached Patna through road. Later in the day, the engineers fixed the overhead wire and trains started running on that track.