For those who don’t know about this news, let me briefly explain what the issue is all about. There was a fatal accident in one of the apartment buildings that have elevators made by Schindler. It happened when a high school boy tried to carry his bike on the elevator. He was fine until the doors opened at the floor he was getting off at, but things went wrong when the elevator didn’t stop going up - while the doors were still open. The boy, who was just about to set his foot out of the elevator, couldn’t get himself completely out when the elevator started to rise, got his chest caught and was crushed to death.
This happened on the 3rd of June. Now, the happening - and moreover Schindler’s post accident comment - has turned into a huge social problem.
The accident happened not because of the structure and design of the elevator, but is due to the maintenance’s error by oversight.
This comment given right after the accident, before making any disclosure at all, before conducting thorough investigation, seemed nothing but an excuse for the elevator maker, claiming they have no fault and all is to be blamed on those in charge of maintenance.
Of course, the maintenance side has its own say, not only against Schindler and this particular accident, but also against the elevator industry as a whole. For the elevator maker who wants to do maintenance on their own and make profit out of it, the maintenance operators who specialize only in maintenance are in a word business competitors. What happens is that the makers take a perfunctory attitude towards the maintenance side not providing the guideline or parts requested. When things come to the worst, they don’t even do the business transfer sufficiently.
Well, what do you say? No wonder there are accidents, huh?
Nearly TEN days after the fatal accident had occurred, the CEO of Schindler came out over to Japan and held a presentation (explanatory) meeting. SO slow. That should have been done nine days earlier.
The slow care and the buck-passing, the absence of the highest authority (and responsibility) at the meeting held for the residents of that particular apartment… all of these made the issue a vicious snowball and a controversy.
I never even gave a thought about checking the elevator producer and maintenance company when I use the elevators, but today when I took one I had a close look. There were the names of the elevator maker and maintenance company and they were different names.
I don’t know if the accident has something to do with it or not, but this morning I saw the maintenance people come over and check the elevators.
Anyhow, since elevators are something many of us use more than once a day, I do hope the makers and the maintenance companies sort out the troubles going on between them and pay more attention to what happens to the people who use them. I do believe where the responsibility lies is a significant point, but people engaged in business like this, I hope they look further ahead and each acknowledge the responsibility they bear to users.
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