Village chief first aider

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The serious accident occurred in this hotel.(Bild: zoom.tirol, Krone KREATIV)

A fatal accident at work on Wednesday morning in Westendorf in Tyrol: during renovation work on a passenger lift, a 48-year-old local man fell more than eleven meters into the cellar from the fourth floor of a hotel. Miraculously, the man was responsive. One of the first people at the scene of the accident was the mayor.

At around 8.40 a.m., the Tyrolean was busy dismantling the old lift on the fourth floor of a hotel right next to the municipal office in Westendorf when the elevator carriage and the man suddenly fell from a height of around eleven meters for unknown reasons.

Mayor on site immediately
Shortly afterwards, Mayor René Schwaiger was informed of the accident by radio as a first responder. "I'm also a volunteer with the Red Cross," explains the village mayor to the Krone. He then rushed to the hotel immediately. "Fortunately, I was there and only had to walk about ten meters across the street."

Mayor René Schwaiger(Bild: zoom.tirol)

Flown to hospital by helicopter
Miraculously, the local man who had fallen was responsive. "Fortunately, we had good access to the injured man," explains the mayor. He was finally rescued by the fire department using a stretcher and flown to hospital in Kufstein by the "Christophorus 4" emergency helicopter. The 48-year-old was seriously injured.

Memories of the accident on Lake Achensee
The work accident in Westendorf is reminiscent of a similar incident at the beginning of 2018: back then, a 47-year-old man and four other people were trapped in a stuck lift in a restaurant in Pertisau on Lake Achensee. While trying to climb out, the man fell around eight meters and was seriously injured.