Train hit a buffer at Ranaghat station

An EMU local today hit the buffer at Ranaghat station after overshooting the platform, but there was no injury to anyone as the train was at a very slow speed, an Eastern Railway spokesman said.

The suburban local train from Sealdah was to terminate at Ranaghat and was travelling at 5 km per hour when it hit the buffer at the station in Eastern Railway's Sealdah Main section at 7.40 am.

"There was no injury to anyone or damage to the train owing to its slow speed," ER spokesman R N Mahapatra said, adding that a man was detained for allegedly distracting the motorman (driver) of the train.

Senior ER officials including the divisional railway manager of Sealdah went to Ranaghat station, which is 73 kms from here, soon after the accident.

An inquiry has been initiated and anyone found guilty in any manner will be punished, he said.

Mahapatra said that the motorman claimed that a mentally deranged man had boarded the train in the passenger section adjacent to his cabin and was creating a ruckus that distracted him.

The man was detained by the GRP at Ranaghat and an investigation was being held to ascertain the fact, the spokesman said.

Concrete or metal buffers are erected at the end of platforms at terminating stations or at the end of diverting tracks at other stations in order to stop trains in such circumstances where the locomotive fails to stop at a designated point.