Odisha Train Accident: First Accident Alert and ‘Live Location’ of Crash Site Sent by NDRF Jawan While on Leave

When on leave Officials stated on Saturday that an NDRF jawan aboard the Coromandel Express may have been the first to notify emergency services of the railway disaster near Balasore, Odisha, before he joined the first rescue attempts. On Friday, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express struck a stalled freight train after entering the incorrect track. Another passenger train, the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, was traveling quickly when it crashed into the dispersed coaches, causing it to derrail.

Over 1,100 people have been hurt in India’s biggest train catastrophe in over three decades, leaving at least 288 people dead. Venkatesh NK, a jawan of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), was on vacation and traveling from Howrah, West Bengal, to Tamil Nadu. He managed to escape just barely because his coach B-7, although derailing, did not hit any coaches in front of it, according to the authorities. His seat was 58 and he was on the third AC carriage.

The 39-year-old, who was assigned to the NDRF’s 2nd battalion in Kolkata, initially informed the unit’s top inspector about the incident via phone. According to them, he then used WhatsApp to provide the NDRF control room the “live location” of the scene, which was utilized by the first rescue crews to arrive at the scene. “I got a huge jolt…then I saw several of the people in my carriage slipping and falling. I led the first traveler outside and placed him next to a railroad track in a store.I immediately hurried to aid others,” Venkatesh told PTI from a train carrying supplies to Chennai.

Locals, especially the proprietor of a medical store, he said, were the “real saviours” since they provided the victims with everything was at their disposal.

Near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore, roughly 170 kilometers north of Bhubaneswar, two passenger trains carrying about 2,300 people collided.

“The jawan Venkatesh was taking the Coromandel Express on his way home to Tamil Nadu while on leave. He immediately called his superiors in Kolkata after the mishap. According to an official, the phone contact was likely the first to notify the NDRF, which then notified the local authority.

The jawan, who transferred from the Border Security Force (BSF) to the NDRF in 2021, said that he utilized the light from his cell phone to find injured and stranded passengers and rescue them. In the deep black, locals assisted passengers until rescue crews could arrive by using their cellphones and flashlights.

According to NDRF DIG Mohsen Shahedi in Delhi, “an NDRF jawan is always on duty whether donning a uniform or not.” The tragedy happened at 7 p.m. on Friday, and it took the first NDRF and Odisha state rescue teams nearly an hour to get at the scene. Until then, the NDRF rescuer did anything he could to preserve lives in the “golden hour,” the official added. The time immediately after a catastrophic injury is referred to as the “golden hour” because it is during this time that timely medical attention and surgery have the best chance of saving a patient’s life.