Thane lift accident: 7th worker succumbs

Sunil Kumar Das 21 the sole survivor among the seven labourers involved in the elevator crash was pronounced dead at 1030 pm on Sunday at Nipun hospital ldquoHe was brought to us in a semiconscious state and had an exposed bone Even his blood pressure could not be recordedrdquo said a doctor at the hospitalDr Vivek Dwivedi general medicine who attended to Das said that he had multiple serious injuries and his chances of survival were slim ldquoHe had polytrauma with fractures and internal bleeding He was gasping for breath We provided supportive treatment but unfortunately he couldnrsquot make itrdquo he said His body was then sent to Thane Civil Hospital for a postmortem examinationRushing for their ownMeanwhile 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 ldquoI was asking others to call for help but nobody was coming to the rescue I managed to pull two or three outrdquo said Dasharath Kumar brother of the deceased 32yearold Manjesh ChaupalFour of the victims belonged to Mukesh Dasrsquos villageAccording to Dasharath it took two hours for anyone at the construction site to call an ambulance ldquoI believe two of them could have been saved if the ambulance had arrived immediatelyrdquo he said In total four deceased workers including Das and Chaupal belonged to the same village ldquoRupesh Kumar Das 21 and Kari Das 38 were also from our villagerdquo 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 ldquoOne by one other workers started rushing here on Sunday night as soon as they found out about the incidentrdquo Mukesh said adding that most of their homes back in the village are close by so such incidents bring them togetherAlso read Thane lift collapse lsquoAccept Rs 10 lakh and forget about incidentrsquoMukesh has been working with the same company for more than a decade ldquoI remember one tragedy that had taken place in Mulund 10 years ago where two people had diedrdquo 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 regularlyIn search of rozirotiWe come here from UP and Bihar in search of livelihood to do mazduri that runs the city Mukesh said Meanwhile Arunkumar Vishvakumarmdasha native of Badoi village in Uttar Pradesh who works as a carpentermdashsaid someone informed him about the mishap after which he rushed to the site He lost his 19yearold son Naveen the youngest victim of the crash Naveen was learning carpentry but he wanted to support his family in the meantime ldquoMy brother lives in Mumbai and his son used to work with the company as wellrdquo he said Naveenrsquos cousin Mithilesh 35 also died in the tragedy Another worker 47yearold Haroon Sheikh was a local but his family could not be tracedThe workers at the site allege they had to pressure the company for compensation ldquoThey were not willing to give it earlier but after some of us gheraoed the site office at the underconstruction building they offered an amount of R5 lakh On Monday while the postmortem 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 farrdquo one worker from the construction site saidA 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 insuranceMeanwhile 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 night19Age of youngest victim