Man plunges down lift shaft. IOL of 27 September 2007. 'A horrified Sharmla Pillay watched helplessly as her husband, Prega, 37, plunged four floors to his death in a lift shaft at the Wild Coast Sun Casino on Wednesday morning. Just metres away, the couple's two small children, 10-year-old Mikhail and six-year-old Caitlyn, lay asleep in the family's hotel room, unaware of the tragedy. Prega Pillay was the owner of the Durban-based company East Coast Container Services. An employee, Rodney Pillay, (no relation to the deceased) spoke of his "sense of disbelief" at his boss's sudden death. "I raced to the casino as soon as I got the news and arrived at 4am. It was the saddest sight," Pillay said. "Sharmla is absolutely devastated." According to Rodney Pillay, the couple had been enjoying the evening in the Wild Coast Casino, where they were holidaying, and decided to return to their room at about 1am. Prega Pillay allegedly pressed the lift button, waited for the lift to reach the fourth floor, turned to offer his wife his outstretched hand and then stepped in. The lift, however, had not arrived, and he tumbled into the dark shaft, sustaining massive head injuries and broken limbs. Capt Decca Mhlelembana of the Community Service Centre affiliated to the Mzamba Police Station, was one of the first police officers at the scene. "The lift doors were wide open, and I could see the body of the deceased in the basement," he said. While investigations are still under way, the lift company that installed the elevators at the casino expressed their condolences to the family. Communications officer of Otis, Jean Biddulph, said: "We would like to extend our deepest sympathy and concern to the family of the deceased. "The investigation has been handed over to officials of the department of labour, who will conduct extensive tests before a legal process begins. We will do everything possible to co-operate with them and assist them in their investigation." Sue Klerck, spokesperson for Sun International, said: "The company is not able to speculate at this point about the incident, as an investigation is under way." Shocked relatives and employees of Prega Pillay gathered at his Somerset Park, Umhlanga, home to support his widow and children. The father of the deceased, M Prega, said: "I don't know how we will get over this loss. I have three sons, but Prega was very special. He was an exceptional son who always put the needs of others before his." Pillay's death is the latest involving malfunctioning lifts. In February this year a man's body was found jammed in the goods lift at the Stamfordhill Road nightclub One Four Four. In April last year, a 30-year-old man plunged to his death when he fell down a lift shaft at John Ross House on Durban's Victoria Embankment. Police said the man forced open the door of the lift, which was stuck on the sixth floor, slipped and fell down the shaft. He died at the scene. In February 2004, 18-year-old Lungile Mathebula died after sustaining serious injuries when a cable snapped and a lift in the same building plunged 15 floors. Three others, Zinhle Mathebula, Mondli Mthethwa and Thembi Chule, were seriously injured in the incident. The speed of the lift was reduced by brakes before it hit the ground.

Shocking stats of defective lifts and buildings. DoL. 24 April 2007. 'A random survey of buildings in parts of Durban's inner city and surrounding suburbs shows that 67% have lifts that are defective or not functioning. The findings of the study also show that a total of 33 buildings out of 49 have lifts that are not functioning or defective. Sixty seven percent of the buildings' lifts have broken down completely, stalled frequently or are defective. Fifty three percent of the lifts were not functioning at all from less than a year to 20 years. Approximately 20% have not worked for a period of between four to five years, and 8% between 10 to 11 years with complaints by residents disregarded by the owners or bodies corporate. The joint survey by the Department of Labour and the Organisation of Civic Rights further investigated complaints of tenants and some sectional title owners regarding lifts malfunctioning, frequent break-downs, and hazardous conditions and total non-functioning of lifts for many years. In the inner city, the following blocks were chosen for the random survey; Smith, West, Broad, and Russell Streets, Albert Park, Diakonia Avenue, McArthur, St George's and Park Streets, Berea Road between Umbilo Road and Keits Avenue, Point Road between West and Winder Streets, Cato Street, Pickering Street, John Milne Street, Smith and West Streets east. Analysis and observation by labour inspectors show that there is general decay of the buildings, and in some instances, precarious state of disrepair was evident that resulted in loss of lives, the survey shows. An increasing number of lifts have stopped functioning or are seriously defective, causing hardships to residents, especially the elderly and the disabled. The survey is part of the drive by authorities to clamp down on errant and negligent property owners.

Durban shares dysfunctional lift woes. IOL of 3 May 2007. 'Many Durban residents have been stuck in a hot, dark lift for hours, some have panicked, some have faced the uncaring attitudes of those in charge and some have even paid the ultimate price - their life. This is some of the horrifying tales of people who have written to the Daily News. Responding to a report in the Daily News in April on the state of lifts, Durban residents have voiced their frustrations and have accused the eThekwini Municipality of negligence and having disregard for their rights. This comes after the Organisation of Civic Rights (OCR) submitted the results of a survey on Durban's lifts to the National Department of Labour in the same month. The random survey of 49 buildings in Durban conducted in March revealed that 33 out of 49 buildings have lifts that are not functioning or defective. Sixty-seven percent of the buildings' lifts have broken down completely, stalled frequently or are defective, 53 percent of the lifts did not function at all, and approximately 20 percent have not functioned for a period of four to six years and eight percent for a period of 10-11 years. Readers were asked to contact the Daily News with complaints of lifts they use. Lifts mentioned were the ones at Musgrave Centre, the Embassy Building and Durdoc Medical Centre. The Daily News article also reported that an estimate of 20 people were killed and seriously injured as a result of bad lifts in the past five years. Spokesperson for the Department of Labour, Zolisa Sigabi, said after the initial story published in the Daily News and the findings of the survey that were sent to the KZN department of labour, inspectors visited the various buildings. "Technical assessments were conducted and there were lifts found to be out of or order or dangerous. The inspectors have instructed landlords to put up notices warning tenants and users of the lifts on the dangers. However, the servicing and fixing of the lift has to be sorted out between tenants and owners. We, as a department, want to ensure that no more lives are endangered by the use of dysfunctional lifts," she said.

Here are some stories readers shared with the Daily News:

In November last year, Arvin Debba, his wife, Estel and his 13-year-old daughter Elissa were stuck in a lift in Musgrave Centre for about 45 minutes. "The fan and alarm stopped working. It became very stuffy and it was difficult to breathe. My daughter was traumatised and became hysterical and we had to calm her down. I even had to shout at my daughter, telling her to not panic. Estel and I also became frightened, so she decided to call Truworths from her cellphone as she had just paid her account and had the receipt with the telephone number. "Truworths alerted the centre manager, but by that time I had already managed to pry open the door, about one inch and the security guard on the outside forced his baton into the opening. "This gave us a fresh breath of air and some relief. But when the technicians from Schindler Lift Company arrived, they were angry with the guard because he inserted the baton in the door. "Once we were out, the centre management apologised and promised to contact us. To date, there has been no contact made. "Two weeks after the incident, I spoke to the lady at the information desk, who led me to believe that being stuck in the lift is a regular occurrence. I was shocked. "This incident has traumatised my daughter. As a result she can't go into a lift anymore. What concerns me is that there are a lot of children who go to the shopping centre and their lives are therefore in danger."


A state employee , who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that lifts in privately-owned buildings were not the only problem in Durban. "I work at Addington Hospital and the lifts in the hospital are also unreliable. Recently, I was stuck, on my own, in a lift that stopped between floors. I spent nearly an hour in the lift before it started working again. "When my husband arrived at the hospital, he found that there was no recognised procedure, other than the switchboard phoning a standby technician. There was a noticeable absence of any knowledge by anyone as to what the procedure was. The only information available was that the technician was 'on the way'. "There was no apparent concern or caring and no one could tell my husband whether the lift technician was aware that not only was the lift stuck but that someone was in the lift. How could the technician make a judgment as to whether the call was critical or whether he just had to get there to repair the lift. "I am claustrophobic and am now afraid to use any of the lifts to get to my place of work on the 10th floor."

An eThekwini Municipality employee , who also spoke on condition of anonymity, requested that the Shell House on the corner of Aliwal and Smith Streets be inspected by the OCR. "This building houses eThekwini Municipality employees. Somehow, the lifts are not being maintained and we are actually scared every time we have to get into one. "On April 24 only two out of four lifts were working, and one had no lights. I e-mailed a senior official who is a bit involved with health and safety and asked if the lifts were safe, to which he replied, 'I hope so'. "Besides the lifts being dangerous, we seem to have a penny wise pound foolish scenario here. There is no money to fix the lifts but hundreds of thousand of rands are wasted in terms of time waiting. We are really worried that management will wait for someone to be killed, before doing something about it." The Durdoc Medical Centre in Smith Street also seems to be a problem and a threat to lives.

An employee , who is housed at the building, said the building has 15 floors and there are five lifts, including a service lift. "The service lift is terrible and is accessible to only some businesses in the building. The other four lifts are used regularly by staff and visitors, but there are major problems with those lifts. "One lift is permanently not working, one lift does not stop on certain floors, so people have to use the fire escape stairs to walk between floors and one lift makes a rickety noise, which means there is only one lift in working order. "The lifts are also frequented by patients at the Durdoc Medical Centre and staff and visitors are therefore exposed to infections and illnesses. "Also those in wheelchairs and mothers using prams try and squeeze into the lifts. "People also waited for long periods of time for a lift and adding to the frustration is the lack of concern from those in charge. Thousands of lives are in management's hands and no one bothers".

Athish Dhanraj, who is based at the Embassy Building in Smith Street, said that he stopped using the lifts after a few dangerous encounters. "I contacted the fire department and lodged a complaint and was told that an official would be sent to inspect the building. I am not sure if an inspector was sent as the condition of the lifts have remained the same. "The reason I called the fire department was because in the three years that I've been at the Embassy Building, there has never been a fire drill or emergency evacuation drill carried out. The fire escape and staircase are also locked, resulting in the lifts being overworked. And while the lifts are also being serviced every week, they remain faulty. "On two occasions the lift fell for a short distance and then jerked coming to a sudden stop and I am not the only person this has happened to. It seems like it is going to take a tragic event for someone to do something." The QuadPara Association of South Africa (QASA) also responded, saying that they support any action taken to ensure that all lifts in Durban are safe.

Sarah Briggs , project co-coordinator, said people who use wheelchairs were entirely dependent on lifts in any multi-storey building, and no person should have to put their safety at risk because building owners and body corporates do not adhere to basic safety standards. "The Constitution places the responsibility for developing and enforcing building regulations with the municipality, which is clearly not doing its job when it comes to ensuring that lifts are safe. Thousands of people with disabilities who live in or visit Durban every day are aware of the eThekwini Municipality's indifference to their needs, as very few of Durban's facilities, public spaces and services are accessible to people with disabilities - even the lift at City Hall is not big enough to hold a wheelchair safely. "QASA supports the OCR and any other group or individual who demands that basic safety requirements are met, but the government entity which has the power and the responsibility to enforce safety regulations is the municipality, and it is the municipality which must be held accountable for its failure to ensure that buildings are safe. "Faulty lifts have caused serious injury and death without apparently provoking any concern or remorse from the municipality at all. Has Dr Sutcliffe made any special efforts to address this very serious safety issue, and if so, what are they, who is responsible and how effective have they been? If not, why not?" Complaints have also been made regarding Excelsior Court, which houses Durban's police officers . A tenant called the Daily News complaining of the shocking condition of the lifts. "There are 12 floors in this building with about 60 families and every day we have a problem. There are people in here fixing these lifts on daily basis, but within two hours the lifts are broken again. "They constantly tell us that our children are to blame for the lifts breaking, but my suspicion is that they are not hiring the correct people to service the lifts. "They have to find a proper technician to do the job otherwise there is going to be serious problems. "I have children and they become hysterical when we get stuck in the lift. There are also some people who choose to walk eight or nine floors, afraid that they might get stuck in the lift. "That is just ridiculous."

Lift safety incidents have trebled over 30 years in SA.

Outdated lifts still in service will pose an ever-increasing threat to lift passenger safety unless carefully monitored and maintained. “Incidents of accidents and injuries in lifts have roughly trebled since the thirty years before 1994,” says Independent Lift Inspector Association of South Africa (Iliasa) chair Dr Theo Kleinhans. Kleinhans arrived at this conclusion when comparing accidents over the last ten years to incidents between 1964 and 1994. “Up until about 1994 serious accidents in lifts were almost non-existent,” he says. This is mainly because most of the elevators in service during that period were relatively new. “The first lift boom in South Africa took place during the mid-1960s.” The rules governing the operation of old lifts and escalators are contained in the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act of 1993. In general, the Act provides a legislative framework for the safe installation and operation of lifts and escalators and is enforced by the Department of Labour. This Act states that all lifts installed before 1994 are deemed to comply with the new requirements if they complied with the safety regulations in effect at the time. “The biggest bug in the industry’s safety features is when some property owners claim that their old lifts are safe just because they run up and down,” says Kleinhans. “There is an old lift operating in Vermeulen street, Pretoria, that was installed in 1934.” “Because the elevator never gives technical trouble, people are satisfied that the lift poses no threat to safety.” “Assumptions like this can be dangerous.” Tension in the industry is therefore often born from the conflicting priorities of property owners and regulators such as lift inspectors, he says. The OHS Act requires that the owners of buildings must be responsible for servicing and maintaining the lifts on their properties. Obviously, many of these owners are not competent or trained in lift maintenance, says Kleinhans. The legislation makes accommodation for this by allowing owners to re-assign or depute this responsibility to a competent company or person. This responsible party will either be a lift technician from one of the five multinational elevator companies or a technician from one of the smaller independent service providers. The problem arises when some building owners employ amateur service staff to conduct repairs and maintenance. This sometimes results in serious breaches in safety standards. “The danger lies in the fact that some of these old lifts are being serviced by back-street companies.” “The image of the industry has been affected as a result,” says Kone South Africa MD Alan Underwood. Another obstacle to safety lies in the application of advice and guidelines from lift inspectors, says Kleinhans. Some property owners are reluctant to implement changes because of the significant costs involved in modernising and upgrading safety and service levels, he says. “Whereas 30 years ago a new lift might have cost about R60 000, to modernise that same lift now could cost in the region of R500 000.” The installation of new lifts, on the other hand, can cost up to and well over a million rands, he says. The modern breakthroughs in lift technology means that modernisation is usually an expensive business. These modernisations usually involve replacing outdated drive and control systems, inclusive of car door operators and landing door equipment as well as work on the signals, buttons and interiors of elevators. One of the latest trends is the installation of motor roomless equipment, where the driving machine is placed inside the shaft head, thereby doing away with the need for a motor room. The other significant innovation is the shift from expensive dc drives requiring motor-generator sets to the latest ac variable-voltage variable-frequency drives at half the dc cost. The introduction of microprocessors has likewise brought large relay-logic lift controls down to PC size with ten times the ability to think and control the lifts – known in the industry as fuzzy logic. Many people also tend to forget that the issues of safety affecting lifts extend far beyond the lift shaft, controls, motors and other machinery that help control operation. Lifts are part of a holistic system of safety that includes building maintenance, fire regulations and wire-installation rules. It is pointless to demand high standards of safety from lifts that operate in buildings that are structurally unsound. The role of Iliasa is to monitor and report on the application of the South African National Stand- ards code for passenger lifts, escalators and goods hoists. Inspectors from the Department of Labour are responsible for policing the code. This SANS technical code requires that all lifts, escalators and hoists must conform to international standards of safety by being ISO 9002 accredited. There are two ways in which a member of Iliasa can help enforce technical compliance to the SANS rules and guidelines. A registered lift inspector can either deliver a repair order to the relevant property owner or, if faced by more serious violations, can call on a representative of the Department of Labour Inspectorate to issue a prohibition order. A measure under the new Act that has helped improve safety in the industry has been the registration of lift inspectors by the Engineering Council of South Africa (Ecsa). Previously, only Department of Labour inspectors, who had to be registered engineers, were allowed to carry out certificate-of-compliance inspections. Now any lift inspector registered with the council can inspect lifts and escalators for regulatory compliance. To qualify as registered lift inspectors, applicants can either obtain an academic qualification through a technikon or gain recognition from the council by proving a history of extensive hands-on experience. Being registered by Ecsa means that inspectors will be accountable to a code of conduct and practice – discipline is delivered in cases where inspectors contravene the code. The public also has recourse to lodging individual complaints with Ecsa concerning questionable practice among inspectors. Despite the various safety issues facing the industry at the moment, Kleinhans still believes that lifts are inherently safe. Most of the problems and injuries arise when people tamper with faulty lift equipment or try escape from the safety of the carriage when the lift is stuck. “Actual injuries inside the lift car are very uncommon,” he says. “Interestingly, most of the injuries inside carriages involve women.” “This is because of the poor postures that result from wearing high-heel shoes,” he contends. “The most widely-held fear of lift passengers is that the lift will fall with them.” “Few people know that lifts are designed to fall up because of an over-weighted counterweight that pulls the car up to relative safety in the shaft head,” says Kleinhans.

Lift inspection becomes a stand-alone inspection category.

The council continues to adopt and adapt measures to improve safety. “Ecsa is a forum through which the various stakeholders can decide on standards for the industry,” says Ecsa CEO Paul Roux.
While Ecsa is responsible for registration of lift inspectors, the Department of Labour is accountable for administering the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act that prescribes safety rules. The code of conduct that binds the lift inspectors registered with Ecsa is decided on by these stakeholders. Depending on the seriousness of a violation, the penalties for failure to comply with the code can vary from a warning to disqualification from the right to practice. “This is a prime example of peer action and discipline within the industry,” says Roux. Roux is confident that lift inspectors are well-equipped to deal with the challenges facing the sector at the moment. “This includes the challenge posed by old lifts still in service,” says Lift Inspector Registration Committee (Lirc) chairperson Jan van Wyk. “Lift inspectors were registered as an independent category by the council five years ago and progress in safety has been ongoing since then,” says Van Wyk. Under the old system, 150 inspectors from the Department of Labour were required to police all the lifts, escalators and hoists in operation. Together with the pressure of inspecting all the country’s lifts, the job also demanded that inspectors have a broad knowledge of all lifts, escalators and conveyors.
The recent registration of lift inspectors as a standalone category allows for a more focused and qualified approach to inspection, says Van Wyk. This is because private lift inspectors registered by Ecsa are able to specialise in passenger lifts. The ‘privatisation’ of lift inspectors implies that there are no limits to the number of candidates wishing to join the profession. The duty of inspecting the country’s lifts is therefore shared by a greater number of people. These days responsibility for safety is also shared with lift owners who are required by law to make sure that their elevators are given routine inspections. Although Ecsa does not assume the responsibilities of the Department of Labour, there is increasing cooperation between the two bodies. “The new inspectors are the eyes and ears of the Department of Labour,” says Van Wyk. The inspectors will immediately inform the department about any irregularities in the lifts they examine. The inspectors also keep a database of problem lifts that enable them to track the efforts made to improve the safety of these lifts. “Once the department has been informed, an unsafe lift can be stopped in a matter of minutes,” says Van Wyk.

Lawyer injured in lift 'vice'. 26 May 2005.

Johannesburg - "Two cups of blood" stained the floor of the High Court on Tuesday after an advocate's face was seriously injured when the doors of a lift closed on him in a vice-like grip. After an investigating officer freed advocate Leonard Cindi from the grip of the lift doors, he was taken to Lenmed Clinic to have "a very deep gash over his eye and forehead" stitched and was then rushed to a dentist because "a lot of his teeth were loose". Zaais van Zyl SC, deputy-director of public prosecutions, said Cindi was on his way to a criminal case on the second floor of the court building when he got into the goods lift on the 12th floor. "The lift is supposed to open in a reflex action when someone touches the side of the doors, but it just kept on closing." Van Zyl said that last year a bone in advocate Ilse van der Merwe's hand was broken when the same lift shut on it. He added that advocates and members of the public often used the goods lift because "not a week goes by without the (other four) lifts giving problems". "Last Friday, someone who has claustrophobia got stuck in one of the lifts - it was a terrible mess," said Van Zyl. "We have complained so many times about the lifts. At times, all four have been out of order and people with asthma have to climb the stairs. One advocate injured her knee from climbing stairs all the time." Earlier this year, there were reports that eight judges had been stuck in their private lift for about half an hour. Van Zyl said the public works department (PWD) was responsible for the maintenance of the court building, but the lifts "have been giving trouble for a year and a half now" and almost nothing happens about the complaints by the court staff.