Mumbai

A 19-year-old girl who fell under a moving train and miraculously escaped death at platform No. 7 of Kurla station has urged rail commuters to not wear earphones when alighting or boarding trains or waiting at platforms and more importantly not to cross rail tracks.

Pratiksha Natekar’s brush with death on May 13 was captured by the CCTV camera installed at the station and shows her crossing the rail tracks with earphones, oblivious to the sound of an oncoming train.

She sees the train only when it is approaching near and gets into a panic, first running to the platform to jump on it, then running towards the train and then turns around covering her face, even as bystanders can be seen stretching out their hands to help her. The train moves on and then comes to a halt.

She was pulled out from under the train and got away with just some minor bruises. An officer of the Government Railway Police said she was crossing the tracks with ear plugs on and was unaware of the oncoming train. “Immediately, we brought her out and took her to the hospital where she was treated. We also called her mother,” the officer said.

“I was listening to music at high volume and therefore could not hear the train,” Natekar told The Indian Express. “People gestured me to move away but I’ve seen them doing that every time I have crossed the railway track before. I was getting late to meet a friend and that is why I decided to cross the tracks,” said the resident of Bhandup who is keen on studying further in the science stream.

A hard and frightening lesson learnt, she said, “I wasn’t aware of how dangerous the situation was until I saw the video. I definitely won’t ever cross the tracks again,” and wants all commuters to use the foot overbridge at railway stations at all times and to never cross rail tracks.

Mumbai has a notorious record of death on the tracks. An average of eight people were killed daily on rail tracks in 2016, with crossing tracks as being the leading cause of rail accidents in Mumbai. Of the 3,202 rail fatalities last year, 1,798 people were killed while crossing tracks.