A 12-year-old girl fell off from 7th floor-apartment in Gurgaon on Thursday while she was trying to switch off the lights. Apparently, the sliding window pane of the skyrise was left open when the girl slipped. The incident raises serious safety concerns in skyrise housing societies. The girl, a Class 6 student in DPS International, had finished dinner with family and then returned to her room to complete her homework. She and her family would have looked up to a routine day, but little did they know she won't make it to the next morning. As she finished off with her homework, the girl walked to the edge of her bed to switch off the lights and that's when she slipped off the window of her room. The incident was reported in Gurugram (Gurgaon), Haryana but raises safety alarm in skyrises.
The window at the girl's apartment had sliding panels with no iron grills. It was also learnt that the bed and the edge of the window were almost of the same level, due to which the incident occurred.
Guards at the society rushed to the spot and found her lying face down and oozing blood. The guards, who knew the girl, alerted her parents and she was rushed to W Pratiksha Hospital nearby. As her condition deteriorated, she had to be shifted to Artemis Hospital in Sector 52. She succumbed to her injuries during treatment, early on Thursday.
The girl was a Class VI student of DPS International and the younger of two siblings. Her elder sister studies in Class X of the same school. The family lives in Pioneer Park (Sector 61). The girl’s father is a senior executive with a private company while her mother is a homemaker.
Commenting on the incident, the police said the girl stood up on the bed and walked to switch off the lights, when she lost balance.
“Her parents were in another room. After finishing her studies around 11pm, she stood up on the bed and walked up to the edge to switch off the lights. It seems she lost balance and fell from the window as the sliding glass panel was open,” said inspector Dinesh, the SHO of Sector 65 police station. “The bed and window are at the same level. The edge of the bed is too close to the window,” a police official said.
Meanwhile, the incident has raised serious safety concerns with skyrises and has left the society residents shaken.
Pioneer Park, where the family lives, has 14 towers and 900 units. “All flats in the society have sliding glass windows. Some people have installed iron grilles on their own,” said a resident.
This is not the first time a death has been reported from a highrise. Earlier, an infant had died after he had slipped off the balcony of his apartment. The space was apparently equipped with iron grills, but with way too space in between each rod.
Precautions to avoid such incidents
- Get iron grills installed on the windows/balcony of your highrise apartment
- There should not be too much spacing in between the iron grills
- If you are in a room, keep your beds at a distance from the window
- High floor apartments should have proper fencing in open areas
- There must be extensions outside windows, to protect anything that falls
- Always keep a watch on children playing near the window or balcony
- Avoid keeping furniture close to windows
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