Pensioner killed by a flying cow that was hit by a train and flung 100ft while urinating on tracks
A pensioner who was caught short and urinated on train tracks was killed in a freak accident as he was hit by a flying cow.
82-year-old Shivdayal Sharma died instantly on Wednesday after an express train hit the cows, launching one 100ft into the air before parts of it landed on him 30 metres away.
A second person standing near the pensioner as he relieved himself narrowly escaped being struck by the projectile animal, reports say.
Sharma retired from his post as an electrician in the Indian Railways 23-years-ago.
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The bizarre incident happened in Alwar, Rajasthan, India, where cows had wandered onto nearby train tracks in an area where trains can reach speeds of up to 100mph.
Cows being hit on the tracks is apparently not a rare event with 26,180 incidents reported from 2022-2023.
The accident has triggered many to call for better safety regulations along the route.
A number of preventive measures have been taken by Zonal Railways to reduce animal fatalities on the Railway tracks.
Railway Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, announced that measures such as 'cleaning of garbage and removal of wild vegetation' had begun to keep the the pesky cows away, as well as 'frequent whistling at locations prone for cattle/animal run over'.
Elsewhere metal fences had been erected along the length of the tracks to physically prevent cattle from straying into the danger zone.
When tweeted about by India News on Thursday, the post gained over 309k views with commenters largely commenting about the lack of safety.
One said: "How about putting a fence around high speed train tracks?"
Another seemed to think the fences weren't the only amenity missing: "Developing trains and tracks a good decision but provide toilets to the public is also a necessity."
Others tried to see the funny side with one saying: "Be safe, don’t pee on tracks."
Animal lovers seemed more worried about the cow, with another user saying: "Just one question : is the cow ok? It says it fell on man and killed him but nothing about the life status of the cow."
PSA: the cow was not okay.
In happier bovine news from Australia, a cow has been adopted as a family pet after farmers discovered it has a smiling face on the side of its body.
Farmers Megan and Barry Coster were surprised to find that their Holstein calf, born in March, had an unusual, smie-raising marking on its body.
ABC News reported that while the couple breeds around 700 cows a year at their farm in Ripplebrook in West Gippsland, Australia, but they've never seen anything like this before.
Amelia Jones