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Inquiry into lift tragedy near end

THE inquiry report on Hongkong's worst construction accident will be ready on June 16.

Investigators will today continue tests on the working parts of the lift which plunged 17 floors and killed 12 workers at a construction site in Quarry Bay last Wednesday.

In the meantime, workers at the site have to walk up the 25-storey building.

Berywn Evans, deputy manager with site contractor Aoki Corporation, said yesterday the firm did not have plans for a new hoist.

Workers would use a passenger lift when it was ready from August.

Engineers from the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department yesterday removed the motor and gearbox from the passenger hoist wreckage, which was moved to North Point police station for closer checks.

The parts, together with the braking system, will be examined at the government workshop in Caroline Hill Road, Causeway Bay.

Workers who returned to the site yesterday after the investigation and two days of rain prevented work, continued burning joss sticks and offerings to mourn their colleagues.

The third-floor podium where the plunging lift came to a halt and the floor above were cordoned off for investigation.

Relatives of four victims of the tragedy will go to China this week to arrange for the bodies to be sent back to the mainland for burial.

The four, aged between 42 and 56, have families in Huidong and Huiyang in Guangdong.

Tomorrow all 12 families will receive a $100,000 payment from Aoki which has already paid $50,000 to each of them. The families will continue to receive $8,000 a month until they get statutory compensation.

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