Mumbai: It was around 7:20pm on Thursday evening when Haley Momaya’s parents received a call they had never anticipated – informing them that their 19-year-old daughter had died following a railway accident near Sandhurst Road.
“We received a call from the police station and immediately rushed to JJ Hospital, where she was declared brought dead, we were told,” a close relative of the deceased told Hindustan Times, requesting not to be identified.
Haley lived in Matunga with her parents Priyesh and Sheetal Momaya, and she was travelling from Matunga to CSMT via the central line on Thursday evening with her paternal aunt, 45-year-old Khushbu Momaya, the relative said. When the train halted midway between Byculla and Sandhurst Road stations due to the flash protest by railway employees at CSMT, Haley was overcome with suffocation.
“Unable to breathe in the crowded, stationary train, Haley followed some other passengers and alighted from the train along with her aunt. They then began walking on the tracks towards CSMT when an Ambernath-bound train hit them,” the relative said.
Haley sustained severe head injuries and multiple lacerations all over her body and was declared brought dead at JJ Hospital, while her aunt Khushbu Momaya sustained a fracture on her right arm. She is currently stable, doctors at JJ Hospital told HT.
Haley’s mother Sheetal Momaya was at the hospital when BJP MLA Amin Patel paid a visit there to meet the accident victims. She had asked Haley to come home on Thursday but she had said that she had an NGO project to complete and would come on Friday, Sheetal Momaya told the MLA.
“I have lost my child and am never going to see her face again,” she told Patel.
The Momaya family was very distraught, Patel told HT.
“The train had stopped, so people got down. The incident was very sad. The government should have made some arrangements. There should have been communication between the two stations,” Patel said.
Priyesh Momaya, Haley’s father, blamed the flash protest for his daughter’s death.
“People were frustrated as the train was stationary for long and she got down. I don’t know what happened after that. All of this happened because of the protest,” he said.
“We want immediate action against the union leaders (behind the flash protest),” said another relative, requesting not to be identified.
Mumbra residents Yafiza Chogale and her son Kaif Chogale, who had disembarked from the train with Haley Momaya and her aunt, survived the incident. They took discharge against medical advice from JJ Hospital late in the evening on Thursday as they wanted to seek treatment at a private hospital.
The body of the second deceased person, a 45-year-old man hailing from Nagpur and residing in Mira Road, is yet to be claimed by his family, police said.