‘I had asked him not to go’
Surinder Singh, the Mohali resident who lost his life, would have been alive had he listened to his father’s pleas to cancel his Shimla trip. “I kept on asking him not to go, but he did not budge. Narinder called me around 8.30 am and said Surinder is admitted at the health centre. I reached Dharampur and found my son’s body lying on a stretcher,” said an inconsolable Balbir Singh.

Major tragedy averted
The place, where the train’s engine finally came to a halt after it got derailed, was merely six feet away from the edge of a 200-metre deep gorge. The engine rammed the wall of the tunnel and then hit the hillock before coming to a halt.

Rs 25,000 for deceased’s family
While the Solan district administration has announced Rs 10,000 for Surinder’s family, the Railways announced a compensation of Rs 15,000. For seriously injured Vandana Pandey, both the district administration and the railways announced Rs 5,000 each. For the other injured, the administration announced Rs 2,000 each and the railways announced Rs 500 each as compensation.