Middle berth crashes on sleeping woman in Palghat Express, no first aid kit found in train

CHENNAI: A 39-year-old woman was grievously injured when the middle berth in the train fell on her near Morappur on Monday.

According to a Daily Thanthi report, the injured woman Surya from Mugalivakkam was travelling with her husband Jothi and son from Chennai Central in the Palghat Express on Monday night. Surya was fast asleep in the lower berth when a passenger from the middle berth above her alighted from it around 1.30 am. All of a sudden, the entire middle berth came unhinged and crashed on Surya's head and she sustained serious injuries.

On hearing her screams, her husband Jothi and other passengers alerted the ticket inspector and asked for a first aid kit. To everyone's shock, the authority said there was no first aid box in the train. Infuriated by this, Jothi refused when the railway authorities asked him to alight at Morappur and go to a hospital.

Meanwhile, responding to the incident, Southern Railways authorities said that a team inspected the berths in the compartment where the accident took place. They said that while there were no signs of any mechanical problems, the berth might have come unhinged after the passenger who tried to alight from it mishandled it. It is suspected that the passenger might have not hooked the berth properly and secured it.

Finally, the injured woman was rushed to a hospital in an ambulance from Salem. A police case has been registered and investigations are on.