Earphones claim another victim

A 21-year-old college student was run over by a local at Jogeshwari station on Monday as she couldn’t hear the approaching train because of her earphones.

This is the second such incident in less than a month.
Ankita Mishra was oblivious to the warnings around her while she was crossing the tracks between platform numbers 3 and 2.

Several commuters were shouting and asking her to move away from the track and the motorman was repeatedly blowing the horn. But she couldn’t hear any of these as her cell phones’ earphones were stuffed in her ears. The train, running at 70 km an hour, hit Ankita and dragged her for 15m, before screeching to a halt.

She was crushed under the train. The contents of her ripped bag was strewn apart and her cell phone broken into pieces.

Ankita was a final year BCom student of Sathaye College in Vile Parle (East). The incident took place at 8.10am when she  was going to college from her house at Shankarwadi in Jogeshwari (East). She had plugged in her earphones and was listening to music while crossing the tracks to reach platform 2.

“The Virar-bound fast local was approaching Jogeshwari station. The motorman blew the horn continuously to alert the girl. Commuters on the platform too kept shouting to warn her. But, she was couldn’t hear any of these because her ears were plugged,” said TN Shinde, senior police inspector of Andheri GRP (Government Railway Police) station.

The train, running at 70 km an hour, hit Ankita and dragged her for 15m towards Goregoan side, before halting.

The body was taken to Cooper Hospital for a post mortem.The police found her identity card and her address and informed her father, Bhushan. The Andheri police have registered a case of accidental death.

On August 29, a 16-year-old college student Omkar Satam, who was crossing the tracks with earphones on, run over by local near Jogeshwari station.

“We have registered 8,757 trespassing cases between Churchgate and Virar on the Western Railway this year and recovered Rs42 lakh from them. As many as 75 offenders were sent to jail as they were unable to pay fine,” said Rajendra Rupnawar, senior divisional security commissioner, RPF (Railway Protection Force), Western Railway. He added that their aim was not to collect fine but to create awareness among commuters about the dangers of track-crossing.