It may seem an insensitive thing to say, but this was an accident waiting to happen. A young man, his ears probably filled with music, was run over by a locomotive at Kurla station even as people watching in horror screamed at him to get off the tracks. At the best of times it is an invitation to disaster to cross the railway lines on the suburban section, that too at a busy junction like Kurla, where even a person in full control of her faculties could go, and has gone, grievously wrong in judging the speed and direction of an oncoming train.

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If anything, it is a miracle that not too many such accidents have occurred thus far, seeing the number of people who wander about on our roads or our railway lines, chatting away on their mobile phones or plugged in to music, blissfully unaware of the chaos around. While everyone knows that speaking on a mobile or plugging into your iPod while driving is not only dangerous but also an offence, most people seem to think that doing the same while walking in a public place is fine.

For all those who live under this delusion, it’s time to wake up. Anything that distracts you while navigating a public space, whether on foot or on wheels, is dangerous. Most vehicle owners in the city can recount instances where they nearly ran over someone so engrossed in her phone that she forgot to check for oncoming traffic before crossing the street. Fortunately, a bike rider or car driver can quickly brake, or swerve. But there is little a locomotive pilot can do but blow the horn and pray. It doesn’t always work.