Zambia: A man in Choma District has died after he was hit by a Passenger Train on Tuesday morning. The operator of the train locomotive reported the incident to the police in the district.
The identity of the man remains unknown to the police officials while the locomotive operator has been identified as Leo Phiri. The 58-year-old was a resident of the Macha Road Compound.
He revealed to the police that at the time of the accident, he was operating the train locomotive. The vehicle was heading north opposite Easy Home Shopping Complex.
The train hit a male person who was spotted sleeping on the rail line about 2 kilometres away from Choma Railway Station. The investigation into the matter has started, and the Southern Province Commissioner of Police, Auxensio Daka, confirmed the incident.
Talking about the details of the incident, the commissioner said, “Passenger train started off around 06:30 hours heading for Lusaka.”
He says after covering the aforementioned distance, the Operator saw a male person seated on the rail line. The said person was on the track with his head faced down, a sign that he was sleeping.
The officials have not provided any confirmations or likely reasons on why the deceased was behaving like that. Commissioner Daka explains that the Operator attempted to apply emergency breaks while hooting.
However, but there was no action taken by that person until the train crashed into him, killing him on the spot.
Acting on the report, Police rushed to the scene and found the remains of the deceased lying along the railway line. The body had been crushed into pieces and beyond recognition and has since been deposited at the Choma General Hospital.
The people of the country have shared their condolences on the death of the unknown man. Some people expressed doubts of foul play, hoping that he had not died before being hit by the train.
Meanwhile, other social media users suggested that this might be a suicide attempt. The user said, It could be possible he had a lot running in his mind and was away from the reality of the world.
People go through a lot. Let’s learn to share our burdens and also learn to be empathetic when someone confides in us. The social media users said