52-yr-old TN woman dies after hair gets stuck in service lift

Trichy: A tragic accident occurred in Tamil Nadu’s Trichy on Thursday night when a 52-year-old woman died after her hair became entangled in a service lift at a commercial complex near Gandhi Market.

The deceased, identified as D. Sumathi from Thennur, was employed at a private hardware outlet near Gandhi Market. The incident took place at around 9:45 p.m. while she was using the service lift of the outlet to reach the third floor.

According to police, Sumathi’s hair got caught in the lift mechanism. The impact crushed her head, killing her instantly. Officers from the Gandhi Market Police Station rushed to the spot and shifted her body to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital (MGMGH) for post-mortem examination.

Police have registered a case under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) for suspicious death.

In a similar incident, a 38-year-old worker died in March 2025 after the lift he was travelling in crashed at a private tannery unit near Vaniyambadi town in Tirupattur district.

Meanwhile, a separate case from June 7, 2020 in Trichy city saw a contract worker with the postal department sentenced to one year of imprisonment over a fatal road accident. Police said the accused, 42-year-old N. Saravanan, recklessly drove a postal van and rammed it into the motorcycle of M. Kaliyappan on Junction Road. According to the investigation, Saravanan abruptly turned the vehicle left near the head post office roundabout without any indication, hitting Kaliyappan’s bike and causing his death.