MP: Farmer Arrested For Illegal Railway Crossing; Loco Pilot Prevents Derailment

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A man was arrested by the RPF for illegally crossing the railway tracks with a tractor. The incident took place in the Narmadapuram district of Madhya Pradesh on Monday afternoon. A farmer who had farms on both sides of the track tried to cross the track with his tractor from an illegal crossing.

As a result, the tractor got stuck, and the driver had to leave the tractor there and run. RPF has registered a case against the driver under Section 153 of the Railway Act for endangering the safety of passengers, Section 147 for crossing the railway track illegally, and Section 174 for obstructing the traffic of trains. The tractor has been seized.

According to information, the driver, Dharmendra Rajput, is a farmer and a resident of Alakhedi village in the district. He has farming land on both sides of the Itarsi-Jabalpur railway route near Gurmakhedi. In order to go to his other farm, he tried to cross the tracks with his tractor. In order to take a shortcut, he decided to not go to the crossing but to cross from a crossing that was not designed for vehicles.

In accordance, his tractor got stuck in between the railway tracks. Panicking, he tried to free his tractor by moving forward and backwards. His attempts were a fail and led to the tractor being even more stuck.

Loco Pilot saves the day

At the same time, the Rajkot-Rewa Somnath Express arrived on the adjacent track from Itarsi. Loco pilot MK Jha demonstrated quick thinking by informing railway control about the tractor stuck on the tracks. He also placed signal crackers one kilometre ahead and alerted other drivers.

When the Danapur-Udhna Express approached, the crackers burst, alerting the pilot, who applied emergency brakes, preventing a potential derailment between Bagratwa and Guramkhedi in Jabalpur division.