BENGALURU: Four people had a miraculous escape after the lift they were using crashed at a silverware shop on Avenue Road in the city on Monday.
The four, who suffered multiple injuries, are being treated at Hosmat Hospital. The incident occurred around 3pm. “Everything looked normal when we got into the lift. But horror unfolded within seconds as the lift snapped and hit the ground with a thud,” said one of the injured, who did not want to be named.
All four experienced different forms of fracture and three of them were customers who had come to the shop as part of an entourage for some wedding purchase. “There were eight of us in the shop. We had just descended and our relatives were coming down after us when the ill-fated accident happened,” the brother of one of the injured customers said. The fourth person in the lift was a 36-year-old shop employee, who had to undergo emergency surgery for a fracture of his right heel bone. One of the injured customers too got surgery for a similar fracture.
The lift belongs to Cooper Elevators, which is headquartered in Chennai. The store owner told TOI the lift is only a year old and was serviced last Saturday. Amrish R, branch manager of Cooper Elevators, said: “Our employees are at the site checking the cause of the accident. As of now, it looks like it was a problem in the hydraulics unit. It could have been due to an oiling problem.”
In ICU, but stable now
A 45-year-old woman who was also present in the lift is suffering from multiple fractures of the left thigh bone, left and right heel bones, and lateral malleolus (bone outside of the ankle). She was admitted to the ICU but is now stable. “All the injuries were due to sudden and forceful impact on the body. Any unnatural injury has to be reported to the police and we have notified Ulsoor police station,” Dr Ajith Benedict, who is overseeing the victims’ care, said.
