An elderly man died in Rajasthan’s Alwar after he was hit by a cow that strayed into the path of a Vande Bharat train, The New Indian Express reported.
The accident took place on Tuesday evening near the city’s Kalimori gate when the man, 82-year-old Shivdayal Sharma, was urinating near the railway tracks. Around 8.30 pm, a Delhi-Ajmer Vande Bharat Express train collided with a cow that had strayed on to the tracks, Dainik Bhaskar reported.
The cow was flung about 30 metres away due to the collision and hit Sharma, who died on the spot. Another person standing nearby escaped being hit by the cow.
Vande Bharat trains are indigenously-developed semi high-speed trains, the first of their kind in India. These trains currently run on 14 routes in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has described these trains as “the face of new India” and a reflection of India’s “speed and scale”.
Officials from the Government Railway Police arrived at the spot and took Sharma’s body to the mortuary of the general hospital. After a postmortem examination, his body was handed over to his relatives.
Sharma had retired 22 years ago as an electrician in the Indian Railways.
In the past two years, there have been several instances of Vande Bharat trains colliding with cattle on railway tracks. The most number of such incidents have taken place on the Mumbai-Gandhinagar route.
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