Woman steps into elevator shaft, crashes down three floors, dies

HYDERABAD: An elderly woman from Andhra Pradesh fell to her death through a lift shaft at a function hall in the city on Wednesday night. Kamalamma, 67, of Proddatur in Kadapa district, who was at KK Convention in Sun City, Rajendranagar, to attend a wedding, suffered the fatal fall from the third floor of the four-storeyed building when she climbed into the elevator’s shaft after opening its grills, thinking the lift had reached the floor.

This is the second such incident in the last one month in the city. Forty-five-year-old K Rekha, who worked as a sweeper, died after falling through a lift’s shaft from the fifth floor of a hostel in Himayathnagar on April 19.
After having attended the wedding along with her family, Kamalamma opened the grill door for the lift around 8.45 pm and stepped in only to land on its pit. “Kamalamma assumed that the lift had arrived. She stepped into the shaft and fell, crashing down three floors,”ACP, Rajendranagar division, Ashok Chakravarthy told TOI. She was alone and the lift was stationed on the fourth floor when the accident occurred.
Senior officials said it was a clear case of mechanical failure which function hall authorities had failed to address. “Worse still, there was no operator in the lift. We will probe the case from all angles,” a police official said.
Police said Kamalamma died on the spot. Family members rushed to the ground floor and brought her body out with the help of workers at the function hall. Police said she suffered multiple injuries, including a severe injury to her head. In normal circumstances, an elevator’s outer grill door gets unlocked and slides only after it reaches a particular floor.