New | Poor maintenance, lax supervision and extreme cost-cutting to blame for China's lift and escalator deaths
All these factors contributed to the increasing number of accidents, rendering five in every 100 lifts and escalators a potential safety hazard, says media report
Poor maintenance, dishonest sales and lax supervision have led to a spate of accidents in China's lifts and escalators that have killed four people this week.
Over the past week, a woman in Hubei province died after falling through an escalator's floor plates; another in Zhejiang province was killed when a lift suddenly fell as she was entering it; and two Shandong workers fell to their deaths in a lift shaft.
Last year, there were 95 reported accidents involving lifts and escalators, up from 70 in 2013 and 42 in 2012. An inspection by authorities in the first six months this year showed that more than 111,000 of 2.36 million lifts and escalators - or five out of every 100 - were potential safety hazards.
The Southern Weekly cited a lift safety expert as saying "80 per cent of lift problems were caused by maintenance problems".
In May 2013, a 24-year-old woman in Shenzhen was killed after her body was stuck between closed doors of a moving lift. Investigations showed the maintenance mechanic had consistently neglected cleaning the lift's braking mechanism.
Regulations required such machinery to be checked at least once a month, and lifts and escalators had to be cleaned and oiled once every 15 days, but the rules were not strictly enforced, the report said.
The government also required firms that install, modify, repair and maintain the machinery to hold permits, but some forged papers or hired unqualified mechanics, it added.