To avoid police checking, a drunk truck driver took his container truck on a seven kilometer ride on a rail track on Gurgaon-Rewari section in Haryana on Wednesday night.
For nearly 25 minutes, the truck was driven on the Gurgaon-Rewari via Pataudi railway track. It was the driver's luck that the Ahmedabad-Delhi Mail was to come on the down track instead of the up track and a major rail disaster was thus averted.
The driver, in order to avoid police checking at Pataudi station, 25 km from Gurgaon, took the container on the rail track. At around 2.45 am, he took the container up to Ichapuri station and from there to Pahadi village. By that time, the truck's tyres were punctured.
Horrified railway staff immediately flashed a message halting the Ahmedabad-Delhi Mail.
Four policemen from Government Railway Police, Pataudi rushed to the spot in two motorbikes to nab the driver. The culprit was Suresh Kumar, a resident of Jhunjhnu, Rajasthan.
Policemen brought in two tractors to remove the container from the rail track. Train services were restored only by 6 am on Thursday.
Divisional Railway Manager Ashwini Lohani said, a case under sections 145, 153, 159, 174b and c of Railway Act has been lodged against the driver. Medical checkup proved the driver was drunk at the time of incident.
