A routine Monday afternoon turned fatal near Gondal Chowkdi in Rajkot when a Vande Bharat Express struck three young men standing dangerously close to the railway tracks, leaving two dead and one battling for life.
Police said the victims, all in their early twenties, were migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh employed at a factory in the area. Investigators believe the trio had ventured close to the tracks, possibly to take photographs, moments before the semi high-speed train swept past.
According to media reports, the deceased have been identified as Sandeep Patel, 20, and Sandeep Koli, 23. The third youth, Kapil Patel, 23, suffered severe injuries and remains in critical condition at Rajkot Civil Hospital, officials confirmed.
The accident occurred at around 4.48 pm as the Veraval–Sabarmati Vande Bharat Express was travelling through the Ribada–Bhaktinagar stretch under the Bhavnagar division of Western Railway. Railway authorities said the train was halted immediately after the impact and remained at the site for about half an hour before resuming its onward journey to Rajkot and Ahmedabad.
Local residents alerted emergency services, and police teams rushed to the spot, media reports said. The injured men were shifted to hospital by ambulance, but doctors declared two of them dead on arrival.
Aji Dam police station sub-inspector A R Rathod has been quoted by the media saying that preliminary findings suggest the men underestimated how close they were to the tracks when the train approached at high speed. “It appears to be a case of misjudging the distance from the train line,” he said.
Police also said the group was on its way to a nearby railway station to see off Sandeep Patel, who was planning to travel to his hometown. Further inquiries are underway to establish the exact sequence of events leading up to the incident.
Also Read: Western Railway to Introduce Ahmedabad-Udaipur Vande Bharat Express https://www.vibesofindia.com/western-railway-to-introduce-ahmedabad-udaipur-vande-bharat-express/
