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Death by railways, claims woman who lost husband

A 2004 Bombay high court (HC) directive about shifting injured railway accident victims to the nearest hospital immediately to prevent loss of life has remained just on paper.

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A 2004 Bombay high court (HC) directive about shifting injured railway accident victims to the nearest hospital immediately to prevent loss of life has remained just on paper. A circular with similar orders was issued by the Central Railway (CR) in 2010, but the instructions are rarely implemented. Proper implementation of the directives could have saved many lives, including that of K Neelkanthan, assistant superintendent of post office at the General Post Office in Mumbai.

A resident of Kalyan, Neelkanthan, 46, fell from a moving train between Sandhurst Road and Byculla stations between 12.30pm to 1.30pm on March 28. Instead of taking him to the nearby Byculla railway hospital — 500 metres from the accident spot — the Byculla station staff carried a profusely bleeding Neelkanthan 4.5km away to St George’s hospital at CST by train.

The negligence meant that the victim did not receive medical attention during the crucial golden hour — the first hour after accident — and lost his life. The government railway police late on Wednesday filed a complaint against the Byculla station master for “willful negligence”.

Neelkanthan’s shattered wife Mahalaxmi who filed the complaint told DNA that her husband’s life could have been saved had he received prompt medical attention. Neelkanthan who worked with GPO for 22 years was the sole breadwinner of the family. He is survived by his wife, son, who appeared for SSC this year, younger brother Sudhir and his 80-year-old mother.

“He lost a lot of blood. The time lost in transit could have saved his life. Moreover, even after taking him to St George’s hospital, we found that the hospital was ill-equipped to handle such cases as it did not have life-saving devices,” city’s director of postal services in Mumbai Abha Singh told DNA. “So many people travel by trains.

It is important to save their lives. The railways can charge a fee from the victim’s relatives later, but it is important to take him to a hospital with proper equipment in the least possible time.”

“I do not understand why railway officials ignore circulars issued by their own administration,” said activist Sameer Zaveri.

“This is a clear case of negligence,” said Zaveri who filed a PIL in court on deaths on city’s railway network after he lost his legs in a railway accident.

“We have registered of case of negligence against the station master and are looking for the victim’s lost mobile,” senior inspector Surendranath Deshmukh said.

“Neelakanthan left home at 7.30am on March 28 to reach office. After reaching GPO, he left by train to attend to some official work. We got to know around 2pm that he had met with an accident. He was advised to shift to Bombay hospital, but he died before he could have been brought there,” said Santosh Kulkarni, assistant superintendent of post office.

DNA reported in January that the HC has asked the railways and the state government to sort out their differences over transporting railway accident victims to the nearest hospital during the golden hour.

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