Experts examine wrecked elevator
INVESTIGATORS will today start examining the wreckage of the passenger lift that killed 12 workers in a 17-floor plunge on Wednesday.
Engineers spent 10 hours removing the cage from the site in Quarry Bay yesterday.
The buckled hoist cage with its motor attached to the shattered ceiling was last night at a government workshop in Causeway Bay.
A special inquiry team - comprising four senior Labour Department factory inspectors, government engineers and police officers - monitored the removal.
The team is expected to complete a preliminary report within two weeks.
Work on the site remained suspended yesterday but workers cleared debris from the third floor podium, where the overloaded hoist had landed, to make room for military crane lorries to operate.
Some workers burned joss sticks and offerings to mourn the victims.
Meanwhile, factory inspectors continued their territory-wide checks of passenger hoists at construction sites.
They checked 25 hoists in 15 of the 98 sites visited on the second day of inspections. Two more sub-standard hoists - both had gate designs failing safety requirements - were spotted, in addition to one found on Thursday.
A Labour Department spokesman said summonses would soon be issued to the contractors, who would be liable to a maximum fine of $30,000.
The Secretary for Works, James Blake, has written to all public works contractors urging them to check their passenger hoists.
