Watch Vashi GRP officer save a woman who was falling from a running train

A senior Vashi GRP policeman’s vigilance and swift reaction saved the life of an older woman who fell off a running Thane-bound train at Sanpada railway station on Thursday night. 

She would have slipped into the gap between the footboard and the platform.

But Sambhaji Katare’s habit of consistently standing at the entrance door came in handy, and he pushed her away from the moving train in a flash of a second.

Katara had entered the Thane-bound train at Vashi station and was to get down at Ghansoli. As usual, he was at the gent’s first-class compartment entrance. As the train moved into Sanpada railway station, he saw that an older woman, likely in her 70s, struggled to get up from the platform and by the time, she could get to the local, it began moving. 

She managed to hold a water bottle in her right hand inside the compartment, and while attempting to board, she fell off and would have moved into the gap between the footboard and the platform.

“Habituated to respond to such a situation, my very next action was to jump off the moving train and hold the lady, and I swung her to the other direction away from the end of the platform.”

“In the past, too, there have been many instances wherein I have saved lives on the platform, but social media was not that active back then. Today I am getting calls and messages of appreciation from across the department and friends circle,” Katare said.

The incident took place at about 9.30 pm, and after Katare got down, he then helped the woman catch another train at 9.41 pm and entered the local with her.

She identified herself as Lakshmibai Suryawanshi, a Koparkhairane citizen who had gone to Sanpada for some personal work and was coming back home when the incident occurred.