This is the terrifying moment a rail worker distracted by his mobile phone dumps his bag on the express train’s controls and sends it crashing up onto the platform.
The train’s driver had just brought the MEMU express to a halt at Mathura station in Uttar Pradesh after a six-hour journey from New Delhi.
But when he handed it over to a booze-drinking railway colleague named only as Sachin on 26th September, it ended in carnage.
Glassy-eyed Sachin, who a breath test found had been drinking, is seen on cab CCTV footage flipping through his phone as he dumps his rucksack on the controls.
But the bag ends up on the train’s dead man’s handle, sending it hurtling forward off the rails, onto the platform and into an electricity pylon.
Astonishingly, just one woman was injured in the crash, now under investigation by safety officials.
Even after the crash, he can still be seen live streaming or making video calls on his phone.
Sachin, one of five rail workers now on suspension, was recorded with a blood alcohol level of 47 mg/100 ml, marginally below the UK drink driving limit.
Driver Govind Hari Sharma and two other workers have also been suspended, reports local media.
Dead-man’s handles are safety devices that mean a train cannot move without pressure on the switch, which was apparently triggered by the rucksack.
An Agra division North Central railway station spokesman said: “The MEMU arrived at platform 2A and after five minutes, it went forward again and hit the end of the platform, breaking the overhead electricity pole and disrupting the electricity supply. It also caused damage to the platform.”
At the time of the crash, all of the passengers had left the train.
