Rescuers battle rain, darkness

ARAKKONAM: The twisted and mangled remains of the two trains that collided just outside Chitheri station, a few kilometres from Arakkonam, barely illuminated with a few halogen lamps, was eerily “hellish” as one of the witnesses to the accident described it.  Though the accident, where an overspeeding MEMU local rammed a passenger train, was recorded as having occurred at 9:20 pm, TN Fire and Rescue Services  personnel couldn’t make it to the remote road near the crash site, until 11 pm. The fact that dense shrubbery and loose earth separated the heavy equipment and the wreckage only delayed matters, but not as much as the torrential rain that lashed the area till 2 am.“We were very lucky to have rescued all the injured people before 10.30 pm,” recounted Manigandan, a Southern Railway line worker, stationed just down the track from where the accident occurred. Ambulances from a nearby L&T factory and 108 services arrived promptly enough. However, it was the fate of those trapped under tons of debris — with no evidence to suggest if they were alive — that kept the rescue personnel working tirelessly.