Opinion: A Wake-Up Call for the Vertical-Transportation Industry

by Rajnikant Lad

I have been working for elevator safety for the last two decades. I have thus been trying hard to reach users, technicians, society committee members, security agencies and building maintenance agencies to create awareness among them for elevator safety. But it seems my approach is too small and limited, and a lot of things still need to be done to achieve my aim of “Zero death in elevator accidents in India.”

For the immediate study, last year 24 deaths were reported in eight accidents, whereas this year, up to this moment, 15 deaths have been reported in eight accidents. Surprisingly, the number of deaths of elevator technicians working on elevators has also increased. Deaths of elevator technicians during these accidents are eye-openers for our elevator industry.

The records which I have maintained about recent elevator accidents, where elevator technicians lost their lives, are noted here for our study and require of corrective action. No doubt, there are accidents where passengers also lost their lives, and this number is also a considerable one.

From January 2022 through June 2022, there have been 15 reported deaths, out of which eight technicians and seven passengers lost their lives. We cannot neglect the death of passengers, but here my focus is toward the elevator industry. For all these accidents where elevator technicians lost their lives, the elevator companies need to investigate and find out the root cause.

There may be a few more accidents, of which some might not have been reported or might have been missed by me. Also, please note that these are only a list of fatal accidents and not one in which injuries were reported. Among these incidents:

1. Bokaro Electro Steel Plant, east central, Bokaro, India. Three elevator contract workers died while working inside an elevator well.
2. New PMGP CHS, Mulund, near Mumbai. Technician died while working on a car top.
3. Shreeji Darshan Complex, Vadodara, west central India. Technician died while working on a car top.
4. Hanuman Ganj, Bhopal, central India. Technician died while working on a car top.
5. S.G.S.Hospital, Nashik, northern India. Another agency worker fell and died while working at the elevator entrance.
6. Siddhajyot CHS, Grant Road, Mumbai. One technician died and one technician was injured while working on a car top.

Six accidents took the lives of eight industry technicians. The service technicians are supposed to be life savers for passengers, whereas from the records, we noticed that the life savers themselves were not able to save their own lives. This forced us to think of the level of safety training, lack of safety awareness, lack of strict supervision and improper or insufficient safety equipment. We need to rethink seriously on all these issues.

To understand the root cause and work out for remedial action, we need to know:

1. Whether these elevators were maintained by organized sector companies or a freelance source.
2. Even if they were freelancers, we still need to know whether these companies are fully equipped and have proper training systems for their staff to carry out proper checks and cross checks at sites.
3. Whether these technicians were trained properly.
4. Whether these technicians had the proper tools and equipment.
5. Whether these technicians were physically fit while working on site.

I am sure there may be some people who may not like my views, but the concrete solution lies within the answers to all the above questions. Let us introspect within our Industry to stop such accidents and the loss of valuable lives of our colleagues.