‘‘It was an awful sight. It was as if death was running towards me,” murmured a badly injured Harjinder Singh, driver of the Ahmedabad-bound Jammu Tawi Express, which collided head-on with the Pathankot-bound passenger train at Mansar this morning.‘‘I could not believe that the incoming train was on the same track. It was like death was approaching fast. I pulled the emergency brakes and the train slowed down, but I could not avert a collision as the distance was less,’’ he told The Indian Express before being moved to the Christian Medical College Hospital at Ludhiana. Later in the evening, Singh was said to be in critical condition.Singh has injuries on his head, face and right leg, which has multiple fractures. He had remained trapped in the engine, which was suspended in mid-air after the collision for about four hours. ‘‘I regained consciousness and found I was trapped in the wreckage. I was rescued later. My entire body is hurting,” he said.Harjinder Singh (57), who has a 37-year service record, said the Jammu Tawi was running at top speed having received a green signal at Mirthal when he applied the emergency brakes. The collision, he said, was deafening and he was knocked unconscious.He said the last images that he remembered from the crash were of his colleague, assistant driver Jaspal Singh, whose body lay entangled in the wreckage. Jaspal died in the accident. ‘‘Just a few minutes before we were talking to each other and the next moment he was dead. I could not even touch him or go near him,” said a moist-eyed Harjinder.
