‘My wife was tossed like a football, thought our end was nigh’

MEERUT: “It was a brush with death," says a shivering Zahid Khan as he nurses his wounds in the Rampur district hospital. Fourteen members of his family were travelling in Meerut-Lucknow

Rajya Rani Express

that derailed between Rampur and

Mudhapandey

on Saturday morning.

Khan’s family was in one of the eight coaches that were derailed. “The train was at a considerably high speed when two jerks violently dislodged the passengers from their seats. Screams and shouts filled the bogey as it began to tilt to one side. I will never forget that one glimpse of my panic-stricken wife fiercely clutching our six-month-old son as she was tossed off her seat like a football towards the other side. It was mayhem for a minute or so,” he adds.

Hailing from

Lisari Gate

locality of Meerut, the Khan family was on its way to Bareilly for a wedding in the family. Shabana Begum, Khan’s wife, said, “It’s a miracle we are all alive and a bigger miracle that my son is safe. I can still hear the deafening sound our bogey made when it got derailed.”

Khan, who suffered bruises all over his body, said, “The train was travelling at 80-100 kmph when the accident occurred. It all happened in the fraction of a second when our bogey and the adjoining ones got derailed and our luggage flew like nine pins hitting the passengers. Our children and co-passengers were screaming and trying to get hold of something. Then, the bogey began to tilt when we thought our end was nigh.”

Begum, his wife, has multiple injuries on her back, arms and legs but none serious. According to the Meerut station superintendent, a total of 196 passengers had boarded the train from the city station and most of them were from Meerut region itself. Pramod Kumar, divisional railway manager, Moradabad division, said, “There are no casualties as such, but a few people got injured. Two of them have been admitted to hospital.”