Railway slab crashes, 27 stitches in the head
In yet another incident, which reflects poorly on the infrastructure of the railways and its upkeep, a 57year-old woman received at least 27 stitches on her head after a chunk of cement in the ceiling crashed on her head at Andheri station on Sunday.
The incident happened at the ticket counter at Andheri east, which was constructed only four years back. Sources said there was no seepage in the ceiling and there was no plausible explanation for the chunk coming off except that substandard material had been used, or alternatively the workmanship was of poor quality.
Coming on the heels of the horrific stampede at Elphinstone Road station, which snuffed out 23 lives, commuters are wondering whether they will ever break the jinx. The incident happened while Asha More was waiting in the queue with her relatives at the ticket counter. She had been there hardly a few minutes when she felt as if someone had given her a bad knock on the head.
“It felt as if somebody had hit me hard on the head. I blacked out -- lost consciousness – and collapsed on the floor. My relatives carried me to the emergency van and I was admitted at Cooper hospital, where I received at least 27 stitches,” said More, recounting her ordeal.
More is a resident of Vadodara in Gujarat and had come to the city to visit her relatives in Andheri west. “The incident took place at 8:45pm when I was waiting to book my return tickets to Vadodara. The doctors at Cooper asked me to get a CT scan done and the results are clear. The medical report states that there are no internal injuries,” added More; but sources said she had been plain lucky, this kind of a knock could have resulted in internal injury or even a clot.
“It is a shocking incident and fortunately our aunt survived,” said Saurabh Palande, a relative. The western railway officials have provided her a compensation of Rs 500.
An enquiry has been initiated by the Chief Safety Railway Officer to find out the exact cause of the mishap. “The chunk which crashed was loose, possibly because it was not plastered well,’’ said a western railway official.