Woman passenger suffers head injury as middle berth collapses on her

Woman injured on train due to falling berth; railway sources cite passenger error.

A woman passenger suffered a head injury after the middle berth of a sleeper class coach fell while she was asleep. The incident happened on Train No. 22651 Chennai-Palakkad Express shortly after it crossed Jolarpet early on Monday. The victim’s husband alleged that first aid was not provided by the railway authorities for more than an hour until the train reached Salem where an ambulance was arranged.

According to railway sources, Suria Murugan, 39, of Chennai, was sleeping on berth no. 1 (lower berth) when the unoccupied middle berth suddenly fell on her around 1.15 a.m. Other passengers alerted her husband Jyothi Jayashankar who was sleeping in another coach. On seeing Ms. Suria bleeding with a head injury, he sought medical assistance from the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) and other railway employees on the train.

“There was no first aid kit in the train. They did not even provide a cotton roll. The TTE said we could get down at the next stop [Morappur] and seek help there. But what can we do at an unknown place in the middle of the night? My wife managed to control the bleeding with a piece of cloth and we travelled for almost an hour-and-a-half so far as Salem,” Mr. Jayashankar told The Hindu.

On arrival at Salem around 2.40 a.m., the ambulance paramedics did basic dressing and shifted Ms. Suria to the Government Hospital. “We later took an autorickshaw and went to a private hospital and got admitted there. My wife had a deep cut on the forehead and underwent sutures. There was no assistance from the Railways. It is shocking that a train with about 1,000 passengers does not have even paramedics or a first aid box,” he said.

Railway sources said the chain and locking mechanism of the middle berth was found to be normal when inspected at Dindigul Junction. The coach was allowed to run through the service without any change. Periodic overhaul of the ICF-designed sleeper class coach, made in 2005, was done on March 16 this year in Chennai.

Asked about the circumstances that led to the incident, Southern Railway spokesperson M.  Senthamil Selvan said the “berth may have fallen owing to improper locking of the berth hook by the passenger”. The coach was 19 years old and fit for operation. A total of 154 ICF-designed rakes were operational in the zone, and a complete migration to LHB rakes would happen in three years, he said.

On Monday evening, the Chief Public Relations Officer said medical assistance was promptly arranged by the commercial and medical control staff, but the passenger refused to disembark at Morappur. “The unfortunate incident appears to have occurred owing to the passenger’s improper handling of the chain link, which is the designated locking mechanism for the middle berth,” the CPRO said.