School Children Injured In 6th Floor Pattaya Hotel Lift Plunge

[webfact]

School Children Injured in Pattaya Hotel Lift Accident

PATTAYA: -- A group of schoolchildren and their teacher have been injured in a freak lift accident at a central Pattaya hotel on Thursday. The lift is thought to have plunged from the sixth floor of the building in unknown circumstances.

Pattaya, the 21st of October 2010 [PDN]: At approximately 8:30pm on Thursday, Lieutenant Colonel Phitak Nernsaeng (Pattaya Police Investigator) was notified by the Pattaya Memorial Hospital that a group of schoolchildren had been admitted suffering injuries resultant from a lift accident at the Sunbeam Hotel in Soi 8, central Pattaya.

Investigating the incident, a team of officers under the command of Colonel Nunthawut Suwanla-ong (Pattaya Police Superintendent) went to the scene.

On arrival at the Sunbeam Hotel, officers confronted Mr. Songwut Wongsiri [32], the guest relations service manager, who subsequently showed them to the lift at fault in the accident. The lift was marked out of order, while no external damage was immediately evident to officers.

Mr. Wongsiri explained that the lift, a maintenance lift, had suffered an unknown fault before falling and impacting with the ground, but not severely. He revealed that all the hotels lifts had been properly installed and regularly maintained in accordance with international standards. The injured had been transported to the Pattaya Memorial Hospital shortly after the accident.

Full story HERE

PATTAYA DAILY NEWS

-- 2010-10-22

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[Garry]

Another lift failure...strewth!!!

[johnlexo]

Another one....certainly perfectly maintained to international standards, just like everything in Thailand.

[FarangKenStine]

Not an uplifting story

[technologybytes]

Properly maintained lifts should be incapable of crashing, there is a mechanism which locks the lift in place in the event of failure.

The modern safety elevator was invented by Elishia Otis.

The design of the Otis safety elevator is somewhat similar to one type still used today. A governor device engages knurled roller(s), locking the elevator to its guides should the elevator descend at excessive speed. He demonstrated it at the New York exposition in a dramatic, death-defying presentation in 1854.

I guess Otis did not account for Thai "engineers" bypassing the safety mechanism. It does say in the actual article that this was a maintenance lift, so I guess it's possible that there was no perceived need to maintain that to the same standard as passenger lifts.

Edited October 22, 2010 by technologybytes

[Sparkles]

You are right it should be impossible for a lift to plunge. The system as you described has been relayed to me many times by maintenance crews working in buildings I was responsible for. Will we see a result eminating from an inquiry ? I very much doubt it ,in the meantime use the stairs.

[waighty]

I just hope the kids are okay

[harrry]

Is this the same Pattaya hotel that had this happen a few months ago.

[pattayabuggy]

Another  one....certainlyperfectly maintained to international standards, just like everything in Thailand.

perfectly maintained to Thai standards more like! 

[antsrule]

Elevators and escalators kill about 30 people and injure 17,000 each year in the US. In 2003, a particularly nice doctor in a Houston hospital was decapitated. Yes, lots of safety stuff but sometimes those digital chips just fail badly. Don't revert to stairs though, the stats per user per hundred feet of elevation are worse.

It's kind of like driving when you are afraid of flying. You aren't doing yourself a statistical favour by switching.

Then there are motor scooter taxis in BKK! I hope there are no stats on them, I don't want to know.

I think I will stay home and watch TV until some wannabe bomber screws up next door.

I wondered while I was peeing in the toilet during an insane lightning storm a few weeks back, what it would be like if the water pipe got hit by lightning. Urine has a lot of electrolytes and may conduct electricity much better than water, ouch! Perhaps my singing would improve in the upper range. Of course I might only get one note out before I achieved a state of enlightenment.

I love Thailand! Everyone was very tolerant of me until I learned to speak Thai.

[Mosha]

We referred to the safety device as dog clamps or simply dogs. If the lift dropped uncontrolled for 6 inches, then these dog clamps immediately engaged. You needed a wrench to disengage them, on the lifts I maintained.

[webfact]

Eleven students, teacher and hotel staff injured as lift freefalls at Central Pattaya Hotel

PATTAYA: -- Eleven people were injured after a hotel lift plunged 6 floors. The incident occurred at the Sunbeam Hotel in Central Pattaya on Thursday Night and involved a service lift which was being used by a group of students from Chachensaow Province who are here in Pattaya to take part in a Regional School Mathematics Contest. 100 students and 12 teachers are staying at the hotel and they claim they were given authorization to use the larger service lift to allow for quicker transport from their rooms to the ground floor.

Full story HERE

-- Pattaya One 2010-10-22

[tropo]

Eleven students, teacher and hotel staff injured as lift freefalls at Central Pattaya Hotel

PATTAYA: -- Eleven people were injured after a hotel lift plunged 6 floors. The incident occurred at the Sunbeam Hotel in Central Pattaya on Thursday Night and involved a service lift which was being used by a group of students from Chachensaow Province who are here in Pattaya to take part in a Regional School Mathematics Contest. 100 students and 12 teachers are staying at the hotel and they claim they were given authorization to use the larger service lift to allow for quicker transport from their rooms to the ground floor.

Full story HERE

-- Pattaya One 2010-10-22

Another failed lift apparently traveling to the ground at freefall speed. Surely a 6th floor freefall would have killed everyone in the lift. Any scientist with a theory on this?

[espinoza]

Elevators and escalators kill about 30 people and injure 17,000 each year in the US. In 2003, a particularly nice doctor in a Houston hospital was decapitated. Yes, lots of safety stuff but sometimes those digital chips just fail badly. Don't revert to stairs though, the stats per user per hundred feet of elevation are worse.

It's kind of like driving when you are afraid of flying. You aren't doing yourself a statistical favour by switching.

Then there are motor scooter taxis in BKK! I hope there are no stats on them, I don't want to know.

I think I will stay home and watch TV until some wannabe bomber screws up next door.

I wondered while I was peeing in the toilet during an insane lightning storm a few weeks back, what it would be like if the water pipe got hit by lightning. Urine has a lot of electrolytes and may conduct electricity much better than water, ouch! Perhaps my singing would improve in the upper range. Of course I might only get one note out before I achieved a state of enlightenment.

I love Thailand! Everyone was very tolerant of me until I learned to speak Thai.

In norway, where I come from we haven`t had any elevator accidents as long I have lived, I`m 50.

How come this shit happens here ?

Don`t the authorities have any control at all ?

[Scott]

I hope they make a speedy recovery and I hope that elevators everywhere are inspected regularly. (I am also hoping to live forever)!

[Spoonman]

LOL, it plunged 6 floors with minor damage to the lift itself........

I have fallen 4 floors from a ladder with pretty much zero injury so I guess its possible what is being said.

[wpcoe]

Yeah, I questioned in my mind if a free-fall six-floor plunge would be so survivable. I guess it's possible?

[sirchai]

Another one....certainly perfectly maintained to international standards, just like everything in Thailand.

No need for another lift. Or let's better say elevator??? :jap:

[Rimmer]

One tasteless non sense post removed from view

[Tokay]

Jeeze. I hope they are all OK.

Stories like this are just sad on many levels.

[bubba1]

can't believe any school would let kids stay at a hotel on Soi 8

[housepainter]

Soi 8 over a hundred kids staying there? With teachers?

Unbelievable. I wouldn't want my child to witness those bar girl farang sights and street prostitutes. The noise there is deafening, the bars are open in some cases all night and all in all it is a totally unsuitable locale for children.

Does Thailand have any standards other than subterranean? Are morals known in Thailand. Has anyone ever been known to act responsibly?

What a defense. The lift was maintained to International standards: North Korean, Burma, Azerbaijan. They are all international. Shame it wasn't maintained to Thai standards as the thing would have never got off the ground. No one would have been hurt and no maintenance certificates would need back dating.

I despair.

[britmaveric]

Soi 8 is fine - it only gets hopping after dark where they will be tucked safely away in bed. Besides even if they did - what will they see? Ladies drinking with foreigners - not exactly shocking.

[Colabamumbai]

Elevators and escalators kill about 30 people and injure 17,000 each year in the US. In 2003, a particularly nice doctor in a Houston hospital was decapitated. Yes, lots of safety stuff but sometimes those digital chips just fail badly. Don't revert to stairs though, the stats per user per hundred feet of elevation are worse.

It's kind of like driving when you are afraid of flying. You aren't doing yourself a statistical favour by switching.

Then there are motor scooter taxis in BKK! I hope there are no stats on them, I don't want to know.

I think I will stay home and watch TV until some wannabe bomber screws up next door.

I wondered while I was peeing in the toilet during an insane lightning storm a few weeks back, what it would be like if the water pipe got hit by lightning. Urine has a lot of electrolytes and may conduct electricity much better than water, ouch! Perhaps my singing would improve in the upper range. Of course I might only get one note out before I achieved a state of enlightenment.

I love Thailand! Everyone was very tolerant of me until I learned to speak Thai.

I like your attitude and your post.

[ding]

Elevators are supposed to have big shock absorbers in the pit if all else fails -which I guess that happened somehow here.

1. They have many cables supporting the car and counterweight, when just one could hold it's weight.
   
2. They have a sheave with a governor on top of the shaft that brake when velocity increases beyond a designed threshold.
   
3. The brakes are electrically held OPEN. So when the power shuts down they return to their normal state -FULL STOP.
   
4. They have safeties that grab the rail if SOMEHOW all the cables broke, or the governor AND electro-mechanical brakes all failed.
   

I always say, permits, inspections on commissioning, and maintenance/periodical inspections BY AN OUTSIDE AUTHORITY WITH ENFORCEMENT POWER is a pain, but if for a very good reason. In the US people have come to hate this regulation -until the wet-ass hour. There will be more of this in the US as we are gutting construction inspection as we did food inspection. Thailand can go the other way and likely will.

[tropo]

Soi 8 is fine - it only gets hopping after dark where they will be tucked safely away in bed. Besides even if they did - what will they see? Ladies drinking with foreigners - not exactly shocking.

Good point. Sexily clad ladies chatting to guys. What a shock!

[Tanaka]

In norway, where I come from we haven`t had any elevator accidents as long I have lived, I`m 50.

How come this shit happens here ?

Don`t the authorities have any control at all ?

I take it this is your first visit to Thailand?

[sexy man]

Soi 8 over a hundred kids staying there? With teachers?

Unbelievable. I wouldn't want my child to witness those bar girl farang sights and street prostitutes. The noise there is deafening, the bars are open in some cases all night and all in all it is a totally unsuitable locale for children.

Does Thailand have any standards other than subterranean? Are morals known in Thailand. Has anyone ever been known to act responsibly?

What a defense. The lift was maintained to International standards: North Korean, Burma, Azerbaijan. They are all international. Shame it wasn't maintained to Thai standards as the thing would have never got off the ground. No one would have been hurt and no maintenance certificates would need back dating.

I despair.

bet you have never stayed ther. there is no noise from outside and the bars are not visible from the hotel, get your facts dight

[petedk]

Definition of "Freak"..... A thing or occurrence that is markedly unusual or irregular:

It seems to me that these "accidents" are not so unusual.

[Hanuman2547]

can't believe any school would let kids stay at a hotel on Soi 8

I can't believe that it wasn't until post #22 that someone questioned what a bunch of school kids were doing in Pattaya on Soi 8. Although it was pointed out that you can't see the bars from that hotel I'm sure you would see a lot of scantily dressed women walking around with a number of farang. And why was it that the school children had to use the service lift? Didn't want them to see all the goings on in the lobby? Easier to bypass hotel staff if something illicit is going on? I know that it is school break right now so the kids are out of school until 1 November.

Where was this mathematics competition taking place? There are many other hotels outside of central Pattaya where they could have stayed. This all sounds a little skeptical to me. I agree with the poster that said as a parent they would never allow their children to go on this type of activity being held in Pattaya.