When the clock stopped at 3.10

NEW DELHI, November 26: It happened within a matter of seconds -- 15 to be precise. Nine survivors of the Jammu-Sealdah Express which collid...

NEW DELHI, November 26: It happened within a matter of seconds 8212; 15 to be precise. Nine survivors of the Jammu-Sealdah Express which collided with the Golden Temple Mail Frontier Mail at 3.10 a.m. today in Kohri spoke to Express Newsline about their ordeal. Dazed and in shock, they were waiting at New Delhi Railway Station for the train that would take them back home.

8220;I got up to adjust the cover on my 10-year-old daughter, who was sleeping on the next berth,8221; recalls Dr Kumkum Srivastava who was travelling in S-3 compartment of the Jammu-Sealdah Express, 8220;and suddenly, I found myself slipping from the middle berth onto the next berth and back again. I caught hold of the chain on the berth to prevent myself from being dragged down again. But it did not strike me that there could have been an accident.8221;She adds: 8220;In fact, I was almost blaming the driver for driving fast maybe along some curve, when I saw bright sparks outside the window as our bogie scraped against another. It turned on its side and rolled over almost on top of another bogie. Only then did it finally register that we8217;d had an accident8221;.

Srivastava, was travelling with her daughter and her husband, Kaushal Srivastava, along with six other colleagues from Lucknow. The group was on its way back after a visit to Vaishno Devi. While the Srivastava family was rudely awaken, their colleague Dr V.K. Singha was preparing for sleep when the trains collided. 8220;I had not been able to sleep. Suddenly, I heard a bang and all the lights went off. As our train screeched to a halt, I felt our bogie turn. It slid about 370 m before it finally came to a halt.8221; Said Kaushal Srivastava, explaining their miraculous escape: 8220;Fortunately, we were at the back of the train. Ours was a reserved compartment. When our train hit the derailed compartments of the Frontier Mail, our bogie was somehow flung to the side.8221; The two other bogies, S-2 and S-4, were pulverised.

The bogie that the Srivastavas were on did not have any major casualties. Most of the injuries occurred as a result of the passengers being flung around in the compartment. What followed was chaos as passengers struggled to get out of the mangled compartments. Comments a colleague of the Srivastavas: 8220;If anybody deserves a mention, it is the villagers. They were the ones who came to our rescue. Till 6 a.m., they were pulling out passengers, getting us supplies from their houses to feed us and keep us warm before and even after help arrived.8221;

The survivors were given transportation to Khanna where they caught buses to their respective destinations. Said Singha: 8220;There were about 20 to 25 of us in a truck going to Khanna. We then caught a bus to Delhi. Many of us left our luggage behind. We just wanted to get home somehow or the other.8221;