A locomotive pilot of the Mumbai-Aurangabad Janshatbdi Express was severely injured after being hit by a stone on Wednesday afternoon.
“Some unidentified miscreants hurled a stone at the express train between Sion and Matunga stations,” said V.A. Malegaonkar, chief public relations officer of the Central Railway (CR).
The stone broke the windshield of the cabin and hit the loco pilot V. Pathak (37), a resident of Vashind. A profusely bleeding Mr Pathak was immediately given medical attention when the train reached Kurla, as he had suffered abrasions on the face.
Mr Pathak was then rushed to the Railway Hospital in Byculla for further treatment. The GRP stated that preliminary investigation had revealed that the stone was hurled from a fast train running parallel to the express train.
Due to the incident, the railway timetable was disrupted for a while. The Mumbai-Aurangabad Janshatbdi train was held up at Kurla for around half-an-hour till 4.30 pm.
Three mail express trains, Mumbai-Kanyakumari Express, Mumbai-Nagpur Sewagram Express and Dadar-Ratnagiri Passenger, were also held up for some time due to the incident. In the suburban corridor, fast trains also share the lines with the express trains and hence, they had to be diverted to the slow lines, causing delays of 15 to 20 minutes on the down direction.
There have been a spate of stone pelting incidents this year. On May 5, two passengers were injured in separate incidents of stone-pelting in Byculla and Wadala. Satish Tari (30), a resident of Kharghar in Navi Mumbai, lost his right vision permanently when a stone hit him below his eye when the train was between Wadala and GTB Nagar railway stations.
In another incident, Navanath Karale (39) suffered injuries to his chin, when a stone hit him, while he was standing at the door of a crowded second-class compartment.
Deepak Ramchandra Vishe (29), who was travelling from Kalyan to Asangaon, was injured when a stone hurled at the train hit him above the left eye between Shahad and Ambivali stations on May 17.