Mumbai: 26-year-old teacher dies in lift mishap in Malad school

St Mary’s English High School

A 26-year-old teacher, Jenel Boniface Fernandes, died on Friday afternoon in a lift accident in St Mary's English High School at Chincholi Bunder in Malad.

Fernandes, a Vasai resident, was on the sixth floor and had just finished teaching a class minutes before the incident. After pressing the lift button, intending to go the second floor, she headed back to the classroom to inform the teacher about something.

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The lift

When the lift arrived, Fernandes, as seen in CCTV footage, stepped in but it suddenly moved upwards. As the outer door had not shut, her bag got caught, bringing her down and crushing her head.

Hearing the severely injured teacher's cries, the school's authorities and her colleagues rushed to aid and called the Malad police, a trustee of the school told mid-day. After about 20 minutes, she was rushed to Lifeline Medicare Hospital in Goregaon West where she was declared her dead.

The deceased's husband was informed about the mishap after which he rushed to the hospital. Fernandes joined as an assistant teacher in the primary section in June this year. One of the deceased's relatives also was a teacher in the same school.

Jenel Boniface Fernandes

"A company handles the yearly maintenance of the lift and their people come regularly and check for every possible fault. Nothing like this had happened before but what happened today has shocked all of us," the trustee said, An official of the Malad police station said, "During the primary investigation, we registered an accidental death report. Should there be any foul play, we will act accordingly."

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The floor where the accident occurred