Man in drunken stupor lies on rail track, Loco pilot saves him

A man in an inebriated state, who was lying on the railway tracks, had a lucky escape when the Loco pilot of a passenger train applied brakes in the nick of time, the Southern Railways said Thursday. The incident occurred Wednesday night at the Murukkampuzha railway station near here, a SR release said.

C Suresh Kumar, loco pilot of the Punalur-Madurai passenger, noticed the man lying on the rail tracks and applied the brakes and the train came to a halt. The man, who was rescued, did not sustain any injuries and was pulled out.

He was apprehended by the Railway Protection Force. In 2018, in Trivandrum Division, 322 people had died after being run over by trains while committing suicide or crossing tracks, it said.

This year, 211 people have already lost their lives in a similar manner, the release added..