The D'Souza family residing at Krishna Society at Vakola has filed a police complaint against the housing society’s secretary after the building lift they were travelling in crashed, injuring six people
lift crash, Vakola, Krishna Society, police complaint, housing society secretary, Mumbai news, Mumbai, Queenie D'Souza, D'Souza family
On October 2, when Queenie D’Souza and her family were seeing off their son, Joshua’s godparents after celebrating his birthday, their building lift came crashing down and they suffered severe injuries. The Vakola resident has now filed a complaint against the housing society’s secretary and the police are investigating the case.
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The incident
Joshua’s godparents, Luciaono Alphanso and his wife Lynette, were at Krishna Housing Society in Vakola on October 1 to celebrate his birthday. After the visit, the D’Souza family got inside the lift to see them off from their seventh floor house at around 12.30 am. The lift gathered speed after the fourth floor and came crashing down, ending almost 18 inches below the ground floor. Five adults and three children were inside the elevator at the time of the incident, out of which, six suffered injuries. Alphanso ended up dislocating his left knee and he along with Queenie was immediately rushed to the Holy Family Hospital in Bandra. He was later shifted to Saifee Hospital at Charni Road. Both of them spent half a month in the hospital, post which, they were advised bed rest for three months.
Their troubles, however, did not end there. The D’Souza family was shocked to find that the housing society’s secretary was insensitive to their incident and allegedly blamed them for overloading the lift.
Queenie’s husband Agnelo, who works overseas had come to the city for a two month holiday in June but had to extend his leave because of his mother’s operation. And now this incident has led him to stay back further. He said, “My job is at stake since I cannot extend my leave anymore. I need to be here since my wife cannot even sit up. I have school-going children and they need assistance.”
Sheryl Rodrigues, a society member said, “The lift was abused those days when the next house on the same floor was being renovated. The workers renovating the house used the lift for carrying all the cement bags, which may have caused a defect in the lift. The lift is now repaired and has a buzzer, which will sound if it is overloaded. If the lift would have been overloaded, it would not have moved at all.” Elton Alphanso, a neighbour, who helped the family said, “The watchmen didn’t know what to do when this happened. They should be trained to tackle such emergencies.”
Other side
Alphi D’souza, secretary of Krishna Society, said, “We have now repaired the lift and placed a notice stating that only three people can use the lift at a time. We have been highly sensitive towards the family and extended support by allowing them to get the CCTV footage. The family hasn’t approached us for any compensation.”
Rishi Kapoor, spokesperson from the Asian Lift Company said, “The lift had over travelled and came to rest on the safety buffer spring, due to which certain jerks were felt. The lift allows only six people at a time while there were eight of them inside. We were ready to compensate the family on humanitarian grounds, as we are the service providers and not the lift manufacturer, but they refused.”
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