Attendant severely injured at PMC's multi-level parking lot

Parking attendant Vijay Londhe (25), employed at the Pune Municipal Corporation's (PMC) safety multi-level automatic parking building on Jangali Maharaj Road, fractured his right foot and sustained minor head injuries while parking a car on the 20th floor of the 40-storeyed structure. The incident occurred yesterday afternoon.

Saved in time: The 40-storeyed PMC multi-level parking lot on Jangali Maharaj Road where Vijay Londhe met with the accident; Londhe's right foot stuck inside the car-carrying lift; an injured Londhe is carried to safety by the fire brigade officials. Pic/Krunal Gosavi

"The moment I heard someone squealing in pain, I ran inside to see what was the matter. When I reached the spot, I saw that his (Londhe's) right foot was stuck inside the lift and he had injured his head. I immediately called the fire brigade. The officials reached the spot in five minutes and rescued the attendant," said Narendra Upadhyay, an eyewitness.

Jaywant Talekar, a fire brigade official from Kasba Perh Fire Station , informed that the accident occurred due to malfunctioning of the car-carrying lift. "Since the spring was broken, the lift got locked. Hence, to rescue Londhe, we reached the 20th floor via parallel lift. Within minutes we rescued and admitted him to Prayag Hospital," Talekar said.

Londhe was later shifted to the Deendayal Hospital, where the doctor said that his condition was stable.u00a0"He has fractured in his right foot and it requires surgery. He has also sustained minor head injuries and will be kept under observation for the next 48 hours," said Dr Sham Dongare, ICU in-charge of Deendayal Hospital.

Ram Ratna Group, the firm responsible for maintaining the multi-level parking lot, refuted the claims there was any problem with the lift. "We have been maintaining this parking lot for the last five years. This is for the first time that such an accident has occurred. It's seldom that the automatic parking gets disrupted and the lift has to be operated manually," said Sampada Bhankar, the company spokesperson.

"The car-carrying lift functions automatically as well as manually. The attendant must have pressed the wrong button unknowingly and got trapped inside the lift. In the last five years, we haven't noticed any malfunctioning with the lift," said Srinivas Bonala, additional city engineer, PMC.u00a0