'Sparks were flying around, no memory of how I exited coach

At 6.45pm on Friday afternoon, Manikal Tewary took out his mobile phone, and began recording. The 50-year-old garments trader from Balasore had boarded the Coromandel Express at 6.30pm, heading to the trading centre of Cuttack, 170 kilometres away; a journey he would make at least twice a week. 

- Debabrata Mohanty

He found a seat in coach S1, towards the front of the train, next to the window, marvelled at how fast the train was going, and hit record. But in that one innocuous press of a button, Tewary seemed to foretell a tragedy. His phone still recording, he captured the devastating moment when the Coromandel Express collided into a stationery goods train, the front of the train including S1 completely mangled, its derailed compartments to the back then crashing into another passenger train running on a parallel track.

“Even before he could finish recording, his coach was tossed in the air, hurling him around. In a matter of seconds, he suffered a broken ribcage, and deep injuries on his head and arm,” said his elder brother Chandanlal Tewary.

The coach quickly became dark, smoke filling the cabin. Manikal Tewary, miraculously, with a bleeding head and hand, still had consciousness. Most around him didn’t.