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Consumers
beware!
A recent order of the apex consumer court relives the horror of one such rescue operation, resulting in the tragic death of Vipin Handa, a senior Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer in 2003. The hefty compensation of Rs 5.90 crore awarded to the family of the victim should act as a wake-up call to not just elevatormanufacturers, but also those in charge of repair and maintenance as well as those who are supposed to enforce those maintenance contracts (the owners of buildings). The government too needs to come up with stringent laws to enforce elevator safety.
The detailed order of the apex consumer court exposes the callous negligence to safety exhibited by all those responsible for the elevator. The lift manufacture Otis, the Commission said, was guilty of sheer negligence and lack of professionalism, for installing the lift without a voltage stabiliser (as a result of which the lift was stalling constantly) , and for failing to advise the administration about the need for a stabiliser well in time and also for failing to service the lift despite complaints. The Commission bench consisting Justice J.M.Malik and Dr S.M.Kantikar , also held Military Engineering Services (MES) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), jointly liable, for failing to enforce the maintenance and repair contract with Otis and for not ensuring the installation of a voltage stabiliser to ensure the smooth running of the lift. Saying that this exposed the sloth and callousness of the administration, the Commission asked Otis to pay 70 per cent of the compensation amount, while MES and RAW would pay 25 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Given the poor maintenance of elevators in not just commercial buildings but also in housing complexes around the country, lift-related accidents are commonplace. Just last month, a lift in the Pune Municipal Corporation-run Kamla Nehru hospital had come crashing down from the fourth floor, injuring five people. Before that, a lift in the K.T. Somaiya Hospital in Sion, Mumbai, had plummeted from the fourth floor, due to snapping of the cable. Fortunately, the occupants of the lift had escaped with minor injuries. Similarly in the last week of November, lawyers from Ludhiana had complained about a highly unsafe lift in the lawyers chambers in the District court complex. In the third week of November, a ten year old boy, Ali Shaikh had died while getting out of a stalled lift in a six-storeyed residential building — Sai Dharm tower- in Mumbai. Just ten days before that an LPG delivery man was crushed to death in a residential building in Bangalore. The lift gates had opened, but when he stepped inside, there was no lift car, resulting in his fall into the shaft. Hopefully, the order of the Consumer Commission will focus attention on elevator safety after such disastrous lift accidents.
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Elevators
in India are so badly maintained that getting stranded in a lift is
commonplace. Another flipside is the crude rescue operations that are
taken up in such cases, with little attention to safety of the
passengers. I remember once being stranded in a lift while going up to
a studio of a television channel. Obviously, the lift had stalled
because of power disruption and soon someone priced open the door –
the lift was between floors and a stool was put on the floor below to
help me get to that floor. I was terrified and pointed out that if the
power supply resumed while I was getting out, I would be minced meat.
The lift attendant convinced me that the lift was in a ‘locked’
position and it would not move. Finally I did get down, but since then
I have read reports of so many tragic accidents caused during such
rescue operations, that I now prefer to walk up the stairs rather than
take the elevator.
On
March 20, 2003, 46-year old Handa had come out of the RAW headquarters
on the eleventh floor of the CGO complex in South Delhi along with 12
other officers and had got into the lift. Midway-between the sixth and
the seventh floor the lift had stalled. After switching off the main
power supply and opening the doors of the lift, the staff had tried to
get the officers on to the seventh floor. Even as Mr Handa was
stepping out, the lift crushed his neck between the cabin roof panel
and the floor, causing his death.