Thane lift accident: 7th worker succumbs

Workers alleged at least two people could have been saved if the ambulance had come on time

Sunil Kumar Das, 21, the sole survivor among the seven labourers involved in the elevator crash, was pronounced dead at 10.30 pm on Sunday at Nipun hospital. "He was brought to us in a semi-conscious state and had an exposed bone. Even his blood pressure could not be recorded," said a doctor at the hospital.

Dr Vivek Dwivedi (general medicine) who attended to Das said that he had multiple serious injuries and his chances of survival were slim. "He had polytrauma with fractures and internal bleeding. He was gasping for breath. We provided supportive treatment, but unfortunately, he couldn't make it," he said. His body was then sent to Thane Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Rushing for their own

Meanwhile, friends and family of the deceased and others from their villages who live in and around Mumbai rushed to the Thane hospital on Sunday night and kept arriving throughout Monday. "I was asking others to call for help, but nobody was coming to the rescue. I managed to pull two or three out," said Dasharath Kumar, brother of the deceased 32-year-old Manjesh Chaupal.

Four of the victims belonged to Mukesh Das's village

According to Dasharath, it took two hours for anyone at the construction site to call an ambulance. "I believe two of them could have been saved if the ambulance had arrived immediately," he said. In total, four deceased workers, including Das and Chaupal, belonged to the same village. "Rupesh Kumar Das, 21, and Kari Das, 38, were also from our village," said Mukesh Das, another worker of the company who works at a different site as a supervisor. He added that Rupesh was recently married. The migrant workers have close links with other workers in the company as a number of them belong to the same village. "One by one, other workers started rushing here on Sunday night, as soon as they found out about the incident," Mukesh said, adding that most of their homes back in the village are close by, so such incidents bring them together.

Also read: Thane lift collapse: ‘Accept Rs 10 lakh and forget about incident'

Mukesh has been working with the same company for more than a decade. "I remember one tragedy that had taken place in Mulund 10 years ago where two people had died," he said, adding that the company does provide adequate safety equipment. However, the workers have alleged that the lift at the site was not maintained, despite the company claiming it undergoes safety checks regularly.

In search of rozi-roti

We come here from UP and Bihar in search of livelihood to do mazduri that runs the city, Mukesh said. Meanwhile, Arunkumar Vishvakumar - a native of Badoi village in Uttar Pradesh who works as a carpenter - said someone informed him about the mishap after which he rushed to the site. He lost his 19-year-old son, Naveen, the youngest victim of the crash. Naveen was learning carpentry, but he wanted to support his family in the meantime. "My brother lives in Mumbai and his son used to work with the company as well," he said. Naveen's cousin Mithilesh, 35, also died in the tragedy. Another worker, 47-year-old Haroon Sheikh, was a local, but his family could not be traced.

The workers at the site allege they had to pressure the company for compensation. "They were not willing to give it earlier but after some of us gheraoed the site office at the under-construction building they offered an amount of R5 lakh. On Monday, while the post-mortem was being conducted, some people claiming to represent the company offered to give R10 lakh to the families of victims. Only one person has received it so far," one worker from the construction site said.

A company representative at the site was heard telling the workers that they were still collecting all the bank details and the process would take some time. While Mukesh said supervisors are provided with insurance, he is unsure about the labourers. However, workers said that the company has not provided them with life or health insurance.

Meanwhile, Arunkumar left for Uttar Pradesh with the bodies of his son and his nephew. Dashrath said the bodies of the four victims from Bihar would be leaving by the night.

19
Age of youngest victim