Mumbai commuter dragged along with train, saved by quick-thinking cop

Lata Maheswari runs to catch the train, when she slips and gets dragged along with it. PSI Gopal Krushna Rao can be seen rushing to help her

The quick reflexes of a police sub-inspector at Nalasopara station on Friday night stopped a 55-year-old woman from becoming another train accident statistic.

Around 9.30 pm, while PSI Gopal Krushna Rao, who was at the station investigating a crime, was having a word with his team, he spotted an elderly woman holding the middle rod of a coach and running alongside it. Without thinking twice, Rao ran towards the woman and managed to grab hold of her hand as she fell. He pulled her back in the nick of time as her leg had come between the train and the platform and she could have fallen on to the tracks at any moment.

"I was with my team when I heard a woman shouting. When I looked up, I saw a woman running along with the train and people urging her to let go of the rod. I ran towards her and pulled her away from the train," Rao said.

When the local left, Rao and his team took the woman, Lata Maheshwari, aside and calmed her down. She had sustained minor bruises. She told the cops that she was resident of Jaipur and had come to visit her daughter, Priti Lath, in Borivli. They had come to Nalasopara to visit relatives. They were on their way back, when they saw that the train for Borivli had already arrived. "While Priti managed to get onto the train, when Lata tried to get in, the train had started moving. Lata fell and was dragged along with the train," said an officer from Virar RPF.

Sub-inspector Gopal Krushna Rao. Pics/Hanif Patel

Priti said, "I tried to pull my mother into the train, but could not as the train was moving. We are grateful to the police officer who helped her."

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