Reason for escalator mishap remains mystery

HYDERABAD: Parents of the students who were injured in an alleged escalator malfunctioning at RK Cinemax, Banjara Hills, are confused over the narrative of the mishap. While some were told that the escalator that was going up suddenly reversed on the second floor, others were informed that a student tripped and fell due to untied shoelaces.

Meanwhile, the Banjara Hills police said they had not received any complaint and no case was booked. The parents also shared that none of them paid any amount at the hospital.

Deccan Chronicle had erroneously reported that the mishap took place at the GVK Mall in Banjara Hills. It is being clarified that it was not the case.

Among the 12 injured individuals, 11 were students and the other was a faculty member of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan School, Filmnagar. Of the students, four were admitted as in-patients at a private hospital in Jubilee Hills. While one of them sustained a fracture in his ankle, two had head injuries and one ended up having a minor plastic surgery done on her left ear, with bruises on her back.

The students, accompanied by their faculty, were taken to the mall for screening of the movie ‘Gandhi’. The show timings were scheduled from 9:30 am to 12 noon and one teacher was assigned to escort and manage a group of 20 students, of the total 800. While they were heading to the theatre on the fifth floor of the mall, the students accidentally slipped on the escalator and sustained injuries on the second floor. The injuries, external bruises, were caused by the molded iron on the edges of the stairs on the escalator and the small stiffs.

There seems to be an unclear narrative of what transpired on the escalator, said Aravind Reddy, father of Abhinav Reddy, who sustained the ankle fracture, adding that the surgery was successful and that Abhinav was discharged from the hospital around 4 pm on Saturday.

“Abhinav sustained a deep-cut injury on his ankle. We were asked to come back after two weeks for a check-up. About the incident, the kids seemed to be in a confused state and were unable to recollect what exactly happened. Even we are curious as to what exactly happened to cause such a mishap,” he said.

Father of one of the students who was injured shared that he learnt about a sudden jerk experienced by students on the escalator. “I was told that the escalator taking them suddenly halted and started reversing, causing panic among the crowd and making them topple over each other,” said the parent, requesting anonymity.

“When asked about the school management on Friday, the people at the mall alleged that only one CCTV camera covered that escalator in question and that too showed the last two steps of it. It is surprising that such a big mall lacks adequate CCTV cameras. We do not suspect anything wrong with the school as my other child finished his entire education here and such incidents are never heard of. I also heard a story about a student’s shoelace getting stuck in the escalator, causing a malfunction,” he said.

The parent of a student who got stitches on his head due to an injury said the doctors assured that the wound was not serious and that they could get discharged from the hospital on Sunday. When contacted, the management of RK Cinemax were unavailable for comment.

 

What happened

 Parents are still unclear what happened at RK Cinemax, Banjara Hills, on Thursday where 11 Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan student were injured in an escalator accident

Some were told that the escalator suddenly reversed, others were informed that a student tripped and fell due to untied  shoelaces.

Banjara Hills police said has not received any complaint, no case was booked.

Four students admitted as in-patients at a private hospital; one sustained ankle fracture, two had head injuries and one needed minor plastic surgery on her left ear.

Only one CCTV camera covered the escalator; it covered only the last two steps.