Bikaner-Guwahati train derailment: ‘Stuck with body for 3 hours in coach’: Passengers recall horror

“I boarded the train from New Jalpaiguri Station and was on my way home to Cooch Behar. I was travelling in coach number S6 when the accident occurred. I broke my right leg and was stuck inside the coach with the body of another passenger. I stayed like that for three hours, afraid for my life,” he says. He was among the 23 injured passengers admitted to the Jalpaiguri Superspecialty Hospital.

Seven other injured persons were referred to different hospitals. Of the injured passengers, six were discharged after being administered first-aid. The bodies of the nine victims were also taken to this hospital.

Lying on bed number 580 of the same hospital, 19-year-old Debabrata Sharma is cursing his luck. Despite having a ticket for coach number D2, the college student had to board S6 of the Bikaner-Guwahati Express from the New Jalpaiguri Station as he was running late. Coaches S5 and S6 were among the worst-affected coaches of the derailed train.

“I was standing near the door of S6, when all of a sudden the coach shook violently and the train came to a halt. Due to the impact, the coach collided with S5. I was thrown in the air and injured my head,” says the second-year engineering student from Cooch Behar district.

Not far from the room, Fatik Mondal is searching for his brother while showing printouts of his train tickets to everyone. “My brother Jayanta Mondal (32) is still missing. He was sitting by my side when the accident occurred. I sustained a chest injury and became unconscious. My mother is also admitted here after she injured her waist,” says the 65-year-old. Mondal was travelling with his family to Cooch Behar’s Dinhata from Jaipur.

At the female surgical ward, five injured women passengers are lying side by side and most of them have injuries on their limbs. “My husband is admitted at a hospital in Maynaguri and I was brought here. Both my legs are broken. I don’t know when I will be able to return home,” says Madhabi Barman (40) who was travelling to Cooch Behar from Jaipur.