A tragic train accident may have been narrowly averted this morning, thanks to the quick thinking and heroic action of some citizens in the village of Ciptomulyo in the city of Malang, East Java.
At around 8am, one of the village’s residents noticed that one of the rails of the train tracks going through the neighborhood had become completely broken. Worried that an accident could occur when the next train went over the damaged rails, the citizen called out to others in the area to help him alert the train.
With the next train of the day fast approaching the area, desperate residents donned red shirts and grabbed flags so that they could signal to the train conductor to stop the engine. Others simply waved and yelled at the top of their lungs.
https://www.facebook.com/jakartamysteryguide/posts/1976446079278153
People were worried not only about the safety of the train, which was carrying seven carriages full of passengers, but also for the numerous homes situated adjacent to the train tracks.
“The broken rail was very dangerous. And there are many houses on either side. We chose to stop trains from going through in order to avoid any problems,” one 51-year-old resident, Suparman, told Detik.
Fortunately their efforts were successful and the train’s conductor was able to stop the engine before it could go over the broken rail.
Officers of PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) at Malang’s main train station quickly heard about the broke rail and went to the Ciptomulyo to replacement and repair it. After about an hour the repair work was done and service on the train tracks went back to normal.
