Chennai: An eight-month-old girl died in a freak accident after a portion of the concrete wall collapsed on her and trapped her in the mud, at an under construction site in Vadapalani, on Thursday afternoon.
The deceased is identified as Kirthika, lone daughter of the couple — Vignesh, (24), and Vennila, (21), who had migrated to the city as construction workers from Perambalur.
“As the temperature soared on Thursday afternoon, the couple had put their daughter to sleep under the shade of partially completed wall in the construction site. A pit was dug near that wall, and sand caved in that pit triggering the wall collapse, at around 3.30 pm. The child was caught under the debris of the hollow blocks from the collapsed wall portion. The workers who were aware of the child sleeping there launched the rescue without wasting any time. They pulled out the injured child and rushed to a private hospital in the vicinity. The doctors referred the child be moved to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital where the doctors declared the child ‘brought dead’ on arrival”, said a police official who is privy to the investigation.
The couple was staying with a few other workers at the construction site for about a month since the beginning of the construction. The basement works got completed earlier this week, and the columns were being raised along with the sidewalls at present.
“We make Rs 450 each, on a daily basis. We thought we would let her sleep in wall’s shade as it got hotter in the afternoon. We never imagined that we would lose our daughter this way”, Vignesh told the media when he came to collect the child's body from the government hospital here. Vadapalani Police has registered a case and are investigating. The body had been handed over to the family after postmortem.
