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Ompal Bhatia, a survivor of the three-train crash in India on Friday, had first thought he was dead. When the train he was traveling in went off-track, Bhatia was with three friends on his way to Chennai for work.
The 25-year-old had spent most of the four-hour journey on the Coromandel Express standing. Bhatia, who works in the plywood business, said that just before the trains crashed, leaving nearly 300 dead, some people were getting ready to sleep.
The rail car he was in, S3, was so full that there was only standing space. He had held on to a chain, as did his friends.
The train is often used by daily wage workers, and people who work as cheap labour in industries around Chennai and Bangalore. The coach Bhatia was traveling in was not air-conditioned.
The train, traveling past hills along India’s eastern coast, takes more than 24 hours to complete the journey of more than 1600 kilometers. Many, like Bhatia, travel the distance in over-crowded compartments, with only standing space.
It was dusk. Some who had seats were finishing their dinner, while others were trying to rest.
Another traveler in the same rail car, Moti Sheikh, 30, was also standing and chatting with a group of six other men from his village.
