Safety concerns after elevator plunge at estate
People's lives are being put at risk because of fierce competition within the lift industry and insufficient regulation by the government, a workers' union said yesterday.
The warning came after reports of a serious accident in Tai Po's Fu Shin Estate, where a lift plunged 14 floors and crashed into the ground on October 25.
A check found that seven of the lift's eight suspension cables were broken, and the speed governor, lift car and counterweight were also damaged.
Deputy director of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department Stephen Chan Hung-cheung and chief engineer George Ling Kam-hoi visited the site yesterday, saying a thorough investigation into the incident would be completed within a month.
Mr Chan said a single cable could take 12 times the weight of a fully loaded lift and it was rare to see seven out of eight break. He said: 'We will send the cables to the lab. We hope to find out why they broke ... which could be due to many factors. It might have been strain or metal fatigue, or of poor quality.'
The accident, described by the government as 'a very rare case', has raised huge concerns over the safety of the 57,000 lifts and 7,000 escalators used across the city.