Residents worried as elevators stall, fall

Updated: 2012-02-06 07:59

By Wu Yiyao (China Daily)

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SHANGHAI - Two elevator malfunctions in the same residential community in Hangzhou within four days have residents worried.

The incidents have also raised concerns about people-moving equipment in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

An 8-month-old girl was flung out after her mother fell over as the elevator they were using plunged at the fifth floor and got stuck at the third on Saturday in Oasis Garden, a residential community in Hangzhou.

Just four days earlier, emergency physicians who had come to help a 70-year-old woman were stuck in an elevator in the same community. The doctors walked to the 22nd floor, where they found the woman, who by that time had no heart beat.

Relatives of the patient complained that it took too long to move the patient to the hospital because of the failed elevator, according to the Qianjiang Evening News.

"My daughter hit her head on the ground, and we rushed to the hospital immediately. We were rescued 15 minutes after we called for help," said the baby's father, surnamed Yang.

Doctors said the baby had no apparent injuries, thanks to thick clothing and a hat, but it cannot be determined yet whether the baby sustained internal injuries, according to Yang.

Yang said the accident was not his first experience of getting stuck in the elevators in the building since his family moved there in early 2011.

Yang said every time he found the elevators malfunctioning, he called the maintenance firm but the only reply he got was: "We know and we'll fix that".

He said: "I feel that the maintenance firm was not doing anything about the elevators because the same problem occurs over and over again."

A woman surnamed Chen at the maintenance firm of Oasis Garden said on Sunday that the person who was in charge of the elevators was not available to explain what had happened.

The woman said she was not allowed to comment on the elevator problems, and she was not clear whether technicians had come to examine the elevators.

An annual check on Jan 17 for the elevator that delayed treatment for the elderly patient showed that it had no proper emergency lighting and its speed limiter didn't work properly.

However, a certificate dated Feb 1 showed the elevator had passed an examination.

The elevator the baby and her parents were using passed an annual check on Feb 2, just two days before the accident, reported the Qianjiang Evening News.

China Tianjin OTIS Elevator Co Ltd, the manufacturer of 51 elevators in Oasis Garden, said on Saturday that an investigation showed the elevator accident on Saturday was caused by a packing belt, which stuck a gear of the machine, and the company would support the maintenance firm to make sure that the passengers in the accident received necessary assistance, according to the Qianjiang Evening News.

"We are quite troubled by the consecutive elevator accidents, but we have to use the elevators every day," said Zeng Xiaonan, a resident of Oasis Garden.

"We hope the maintenance firm of the elevators will give us a convincing explanation and guarantee our safety," said Zeng.