Soleh: Five minutes that might save life

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID,

JAKARTA – Life is so precious, as Muhammad Soleh learns. He is a railway crossing officer who works in a crossing in Grogol, Petamburan, West Jakarta.

He then pointed some articles on railway crossing accidents recently: a train crash into a car in Cengkareng, West Jakarta. The car suddenly stopped right in the middle of railway crossing, as the train passed at the very same time. No victim, luckily, despite the car was thrown away to a nearby river.

Wait… here is also an accident in another scene in West Jakarta: a man crossing the railway without noticing that a train was running fast towards him. In fact, the man was enjoying some music with his earphones on, so he failed to hear the train was coming.

Those accidents really open Soleh’s eyes that his job bears huge responsibility. He oversees railway crossing where trains back and forth from Tanggerang to Duri Station, starts at 06.06 am until 08.47 pm on daily basis. His occupy a 4x4 meter room near the crossing. He operates a device to rise and fall the railway gate equipped with sirens, telephone, and train schedule.

At a glimpse, his job might seem simple. As the matter of fact, he does not only make sure that the train can pass without any disruption, but also to watch carefully if anyone tries to sneak and cross the closed gate when a train pass. Otherwise, if an accident occurred then he would bear responsibility for that.

Soleh feels that his job is getting harder since some accidents happened on some crossing nearby his area. “Some crossers just could not wait and hurriedly crossed the railway crossing. They thought the train was still far away so they try to trespass the gate,” he said.

In fact, a train cannot pull the brake instantly. Not to mention that electricity and magnetic power when car tires rubbing railway frames can trigger the car engine to stop instantly in the middle of the railway. “Just wait for five minutes then you could save your life,” Soleh added.