Tragic Accident On The Train

The train from Colombo, Sri Lanka down to Hiriketiya was packed with locals returning to their home towns and villages for the Sri Lankan New Year in two days time. Many carried bags and boxes full of gifts after visiting the Colombo markets. Initially it was impossible to find a seat (even with my second class ticket). But as we wound our way down the coast the train began to slowly empty out and a very welcome seat became available to me. It was such bliss to sit after two or more hours standing in the crowded aisle. I do love traveling by train in Sri Lanka but this trip had been by far the most hectic and crowded I had encountered, usually it is easy to find a spot in a doorway where friendships with locals or other travellers can be forged; it wasn't so this day.

Closing in on my station after about four hours on the tracks I began to feel the anticipation of a cool ocean breeze and the possibility of a late afternoon surf. In the comfort of my seat I closed my eyes, feeling the soft sway of the carriage as I placed my arm onto the open window and lay my head upon it, weary of drifting off as my station was surely only 30 minutes away by my reckoning...

Suddenly and without warning there was an enormous metallic 'explosion' as if the huge anvils of two giant blacksmiths had been thrown violently against one another.

I startled and for a split second imagined the wheels of the carriage beneath me tearing up through the floor. This expectation was quickly overcome by the rapidly rising smell of burning brake linings as the train quickly decelerated, eventually the wheels locking up while letting out a high pitch scream as metal ground against metal. Then we were motionless.

We all knew something had happened, but what exactly we couldn't yet know. I squeezed my upper torso out of the window to see what might have happened. Others down the line of the train did the same, still others jumped from the doorways down to the ballast beside the tracks, their vacant doorways quickly filled by still more inquisitive eyes.

Visible down the line some 150m behind the last car was a crossing, the barrier arms still down, tuktuks and traffic at a halt. A swarm of people were hurriedly making their way to somewhere behind the last car, it was impossible to know what we might have hit, perhaps a tuktuk or a pedestrian - which was most everyone's assumption. After a few minutes I lowered myself down beside the train and made my way in the opposite direction to everyone else. I thought to see if there was any damage to the front of the locomotive which was just one car away from my own. Walking the length of the loco' it's huge engine continued to rumble, making no apology as it spat out it's hot breath of diesel fumes and greasy heat into the still hot air. This was certainly one enormous mountain of steel and iron which was not to be messed with, certainly not by a tuktuk or flesh & blood.

At the front of the loco' I found myself alone. I looked to see if there was any tell-tale sign of impact. There was none and it dawned on me that only the hardest and largest of objects would dare to leave any trace of conflict upon this beast.

Before pulling myself back up into my carriage I made a couple of images looking toward the back of the train where everyone had gathered. By this time passengers aware that we would possibly be delayed for some time, began to disembark and make their way back toward the crossing. Presumably these were those who would have been leaving the train at the next station just some 500m to 1000m further down the line.

Back in the carriage two young Sri Lankan boys, perhaps 9 and 11 soon arrived back to their family and with excited voices told anyone willing to listen what they had discovered. With a cut throat motion the older boy explained to me that a Sri Lankan man had fallen from the train, apparently after falling asleep in a doorway, and had died.

The answer to the mystery of why we had stopped so suddenly then filtered through our carriage and a sombre mood quickly filled the space, the reality of the tragic accident sinking in.

A man, most likely about to celebrate the most celebrated day of the year, the Sri Lankan New Year, surrounded by family and friends, had become lulled by the soothing swaying motion of what would become his last journey.

Life is fickle.

One moment alive, awake.

The next, eyes softly closing,

just for a little bit...

Then comes sleep.

Then came death.

Live each moment,

cherish each day.