Just a matter of chance for many

NEW DELHI: Sarvani Bhattacharya wasn’t concerned about her injured legs. She couldn’t be. She had a far more important situation to attend to. Her mother, 44-year-old Alpana, was injured neck down along the spine and needed immediate hospitalisation.
"I need to get my mother treated first. Once she’s okay, I’ll get myself examined," said Sarvani.
Sarvani and her mother were on coach AS-2 of the ill-fated Howrah Rajdhani Express that was derailed between Gaya and Dehri-on-Sone in Bihar late September 9.They reached New Delhi by the Sealdah Rajdhani early Wednesday, which brought in 93 passengers on the affected train. Recalling the horrific incident, a relatively composed Sarvani said: "Our bogie rolled over thrice before it settled on land. A large part of it was smashed. We smashed the windows and hauled ourselves out."
As Sarvani puts it, she was lucky. "My mother was on seat number 41. Till we left, there was no news of those who occupied seats beyond number 40," she said.
That it was sheer providence that so many actually survived was clear from the account of Shyamal Kumar Nandy, who was on AS-6, one of the worst affected coaches. "At least 250-300 passengers must have died. It’s plain luck we survived," said a tired Nandy.
"It was around 10.30 pm and we were preparing to sleep after dinner," recounts Nandy.
"Suddenly, the compartment started shaking. We were all thrown out of our seats. Everyone was screaming. We started moving towards the rear door. When we opened it, we found water flowing below. We realised our coach was derailed and was hanging precariously off the bridge," he said.
The passengers then used the gap between two coaches to climb out to the roof of AS-5. "We sat there till 4 in the morning, when villagers came to our rescue," Nandy said. "AS-6 had been pushed into AS-5. All those who were caught in between must have died," he said. But the relatives of 57-year-old advocate S K S Bedi, who was on AS-5, were a much relieved lot. Bedi’s daughter Ganganjit’s said: "We received the news in Chandigarh at 12.30 pm. It was only at 4.30 pm when he himself called to say he was okay, that we calmed down."
Amit and Abhishek Dutta, however, were not so lucky. They scanned trains, the platform, lists put up at the enquiry for some news about coach A3, in which their 50-year-old aunt Anita Sen was travelling. "Her children left for the site but there’s no news. All we know is that A3 has been smashed," said an anxious Dutta.