A man identified as Sivasankar, son of Krishnappa from Bengaluru, sustained severe leg injuries after jumping in front of a moving train at Koyilandy railway station in Kerala’s Kozhikode district on Saturday morning. The incident, which occurred around 8:30 a.m., has left the 38-year-old in critical condition, with police suspecting both legs may have been severed. He was rushed to the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode for emergency treatment, where he is undergoing surgery, authorities confirmed.

According to Koyilandy police, Sivasankar, a laborer who had been working in Kerala for the past six months, jumped onto the tracks as a passenger train approached platform 2. Eyewitnesses reported that the train’s loco pilot applied emergency brakes, but not in time to prevent the collision. “He suddenly leapt in front of the train. It was chaotic, and we immediately called for help,” said Anil Kumar, a vendor at the station. Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel and local police extracted Sivasankar from the tracks and arranged for his transfer to the hospital within the critical “golden hour.”

The motive behind Sivasankar’s actions remains unclear, though police are investigating potential mental health issues or personal distress. “We are speaking to his family and colleagues to understand the circumstances,” a police officer said, noting that no suicide note was found. The incident disrupted train services on the Kozhikode-Kannur route for nearly an hour, with passengers expressing shock on social media platforms like X, where posts described the scene as “heart-wrenching” and called for better platform safety measures.

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This is not the first such incident in Kerala. In 2017, a man in Kochi lost a leg after a similar attempt, and a 2023 train fire in Kozhikode’s Elathur, where three passengers died after jumping from a burning coach, highlighted safety concerns. Critics argue that stations like Koyilandy lack adequate platform barriers or mental health support systems, despite rising incidents. A 2024 railway safety audit flagged 12 Kerala stations, including Koyilandy, for insufficient crowd control and emergency response mechanisms.

Sivasankar’s employer, a local construction firm, confirmed he had no known disputes but appeared “withdrawn” recently. The Government Medical College Hospital reported that Sivasankar is in the ICU, with doctors working to stabilize him. The police have registered a case of unnatural death under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and are awaiting medical reports. As Kozhikode grapples with this tragedy, calls are growing for enhanced railway safety and mental health interventions to prevent such incidents in the future.

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