News
Overcrowding caused lift to plunge, crushing ruggerite
The elevator tragedy in which a well-known ruggerite was killed in a freak accident is believed to have been triggered by overcrowding of the lift, preliminary investigations revealed.
The scene of the tragedy
The victim of the accident, Kokila Sammandaperuma, 25, played for the Ceylonese Rugby & Football Club (CR&FC) and was a former captain of the Wesley College team.
Investigators have found that the two elevators at nine-storey building at Nawam Mawatha in Colombo 2 had been in continuous use all night on January 4 as around 500 people travelled up and down to a nightclub on the topmost floor.
Investigators have obtained CCTV footage from cameras located opposite the two lifts.
At around 1.40am on Saturday, January 5, when Mr. Sammandaperuma and a group of friends entered the overcrowded lift to go to the nightclub on the ninth floor, the lift suddenly crashed down from the ground floor to the basement.
The accident happened a split second after the victim had started to enter the elevator. As he stepped forward with his left foot inside the elevator, the lift plunged and his body twisted downwards, sliding off the ground floor and being pulled into the narrow gap between the lift’s outer wall and the lift shaft wall.
His chest and stomach were crushed in the foot-wide gap and death was instantaneous. The postmortem carried out by Colombo Judicial Medical Officer Dr M.N. Rahul Haq states the victim died from traumatic asphyxia, with damage to his right ribs.
The Colombo Fort Magistrate Court ordered that an engineer from the State Engineering Corporation carry out an investigation into the incident.
The corporation’s General Manager, Mr. D.T. Rajasekaran told the Sunday Times that technical investigations into the lift’s collapse were underway and a report would be submitted to the magistrate.