When lives fall through the cracks of an unregulated elevator system Premium

Tragic lift accidents in Hyderabad highlight the urgent need for stricter regulations and maintenance of elevator safety standards.

The thwack of a tennis ball meeting a wooden bat echoed through the basement of a modest five-storey apartment block in Suraram, a fast-growing suburb in north Hyderabad, about an hour’s drive from the city centre. It was a warm Sunday afternoon in April, and 34-year-old Akbar Patel was doing what he loved most — spending time with his three young children. Their recently purchased flat came with a cellar and Akbar, a registered medical practitioner, had turned it into a makeshift play zone. The ball soared, the children laughed, and for a fleeting moment, the air, thick with cement dust and fresh paint, was filled with joy.

The laughter came to an abrupt halt when the ball fell into a rectangular hole in the wall — a strange, exposed opening that offered a direct view into the elevator shaft. Everyone had noticed it but none had questioned it. The ball dropped into the void.

Akbar leaned in, just slightly, to fetch it. At that very moment, someone above pressed the lift button. The counterweight, a hulking slab of metal engineered to balance the lift’s motion, hurtled down the shaft. It struck Akbar with brutal precision, he held on to his life before succumbing painfully.

His children, stunned into stillness, screamed. They scrambled to the elevator, frantically pressing buttons with their little fingers, and trying to calling for help. But there was no lift operator, no watchman, no emergency alarm.

Two floors above, Bismilla Begum stood at the stove, preparing a special Sunday meal. She had no idea her husband had just been crushed. By the time neighbours and emergency services arrived, Akbar had breathed his last.

Two weeks later, the crimson coloured blood still stains the wall of the lift shaft — streaked from the base of the odd, unfinished cutout all the way down to the floor. The opening remains as a gaping reminder of a builder’s oversight and a system’s indifference.

Ironically, just three hours before the incident, residents had held a meeting to flag serious safety concerns in the building. The very cutout was top of the list.