Crane crash on Samruddhi Expressway: Was saved by locals, lost 3 family members, says 33-yr-old survivor

Premprakash and his three cousins and an uncle were working with the VSL company that is carrying out the girder launching work on Samruddhi Expressway. Premprakash, who hails from Bihar’s Mali village said that on Monday night, he had gone for a night shift as usual, along with his two brothers, Lavkush and Pappu and uncle Surendra Paswan.

“At around 11 pm we began our routine preparatory work. About 25 of us were atop the girder which was already launched, and as we were doing some minor work, suddenly we all came crashing down. I didn’t understand anything. It was like an earthquake and all of us, including the site supervisor and engineers, fell down. We all got stuck under the debris of the crane and girder. However, some locals came to our rescue and pulled me out. They pulled out many people and all of us were admitted to the hospital. I was saved because people pulled me out from the debris,” Premprakash told The Indian Express while he was being treated at a hospital in Shahapur.

Premprakash has sustained an injury to his right leg and is said to be stable. While he miraculously survived along with two other workers, who are being treated in another hospital, he was unaware of the fact that his three family members had died in the mishap.

Ghanshyam Gupta, another cousin of Premprakash, who also works at the site, but was on a day shift on Monday, said that Lavkush, Surendra and Pappu Kumar, who died, were married with children and were the sole breadwinners of their families.

“We live in a joint family and all five of us had come to Mumbai together for work. All of them (Lavkush, Surendra and Pappu Kumar) were married and have children. While Lavkush has three children,Pappu has two and Surendra has five children. We are a big family with 11 children, apart from our own whom we have to raise. We don’t know how we will do it,” said Ghanshyam, who was waiting outside Shahapur government hospital to take custody of his three relatives.