Vadodara: Twelve years after a girl suffered grievous injuries after falling from a joyride, a consumer commission in Vadodara has ordered the amusement business company operating the setup at Ajwa to pay Rs 20 lakh as compensation towards her medical treatment.According to the case details, Jhanvi Parikh, a pharmacy student of a private university in the city, had gone to Ajwa Fun World with her college friends in Sept 2014. She bought a ticket and sat in the break-dance ride, but the safety lock came off midway and she got flung off her seat. Parikh suffered severe injuries to her spinal cord, head and legs along with fractures in both hands.She was admitted to a private hospital for over a month and her family spent nearly Rs 12 lakh on her treatment.Parikh couldn’t appear for her internal exams and got some permanent physical defect in her body.However, the company paid Rs 2 lakh from the medical insurance.Parikh then filed a case in Vadodara District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (additional) in June 2015 against the company and The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd.Alleging negligence, Parikh, a resident of Halol-Godhra Road, demanded Rs 20 lakh from the fun world management towards her medical treatment, future expenses, obstacles in her married life in future and mental agony. She said that she had also filed a complaint regarding the incident at Waghodia police station. The management said that all the joyrides were maintained regularly and they have lock systems.The opponent alleged that Parikh didn’t follow the instructions that led to her fall from the break-dance ride. The firm further said that Parikh received minor injuries and the staff took her immediately for medical treatment.Oriental Insurance argued that they don’t have a direct insurance contract with the complainant and hence she is not their customer. Parikh pointed out that she had sat in joyrides in the past and also done paragliding and hence she wouldn’t be negligent.The commission observed that the complainant is educated and she won’t make the mistake of opening the lock in the middle of the ride.The commission further observed that the fun world management showed serious negligence in maintaining the joyride and that the ride’s safety lock didn’t close properly due to which the accident occurred, leaving Parikh with permanent disability.The commission ordered the fun world management and the insurance company to jointly pay Rs 20 lakh to Parikh towards her medical treatment expenses, permanent disability, problems in getting married, loss of academic year, loss in future income, special nutritious food expense and transportation cost. The commission also ordered both opponents to jointly pay Parikh Rs 50,000 for mental agony and Rs 50,000 towards legal costs.
