Thai Woman Drops To Her Death In Lift Plunge

[cekipa]

Is there a Thai word for maintenance?

Mai bpen rai?

Mai nten ance?

[Sayonarax]

I have experienced falling in an elevator... If it doesn't have the maintenance card stamped, gtfo and use the stairs. There's nothing worse then falling to your death in a box you cant see out of.. I hope the owner of the building is charged with negligence and man slaughter.

[Sayonarax]

i cant even imagine the flow of thoughts when this was actually happening with them....

i pray for speedy recovery...

As i have first experience with such an event, there is only one thought that races thru your mind.. "Holy shit im falling to my death and theres f... all i can do about it, except look at the other person in their with you and hope the emergency brakes kick in"

[mrtoad]

investigation will determine whether the accident resulted from recklessness.

i hope they mean negligence.

Fat chance of that happening, that would mean someone having to accept responsibility....

[samjaidee]

Pending investigations; since the invention of the elevators, I believe all elevators DO have safety measures in place to prevent uncontrollable decent. I wonder what happened here.

I can't tell what did happen but what didn't happen was "Preventive Maintenance". They don't do PM on motorbikes so why should they do it on lifts.

[smutcakes]

Pending investigations; since the invention of the elevators, I believe all elevators DO have safety measures in place to prevent uncontrollable decent. I wonder what happened here.

I can't tell what did happen but what didn't happen was "Preventive Maintenance". They don't do PM on motorbikes so why should they do it on lifts.

Have you got any idea about this case? Do you know the building, the lift, the age, the maintenance company? Were the maintenance company advising the owner to change parts? etc etc

Why don't you wait before apportioning blame or what was or was not happening where it may not be warranted?

[rotary]

I bet it is a maintenance problem.

[McMagus]

A lot of these "local" furniture shops have elevators in the back of the building to move furniture up stairs. I was being ushered upstairs by a salesperson once, and the lift arrived. The door opened, and there was no lift, it was stuck a floor above. Does anyone think that a local furniture company can be bothered to pay the fee for an inspection, when it is principally used to move stock and the occasional customer upstairs?

Corruption, corruption, corruption. Pure and simple.

This is an interesting case you mention because I have it on good authority that some years ago an American residing in Pattaya went to BKK with wife and family and in some tall building pressed for the lift. When the doors opened, he stepped in (as you do) but there was no lift there and he fell to his death. I would rather not provide my source of this information but I believe it to be credible. Even if a cable snaps is there not some interlock device that stops such a terrible thing from happening? As for the post by Scorecard ...this sort of thing gives me the heeby jeebies.

[oops]

investigation will determine whether the accident resulted from recklessness.

i hope they mean negligence.

I really feel for the the loss of life, my heart goes out to the injured as well, and for the expected mother, I am truly sorry for your loss. RIP

[ChoakMyDee]

Is there a Thai word for maintenance?

My vote for post of the day!

[bangkokpoppys]

I would liek to offer my sincere condolences to the family of the woman who tragically died in this case, and also the mother to be and her family who lost their unborn child.

Alive one minute, dead the next whislt shopping for furniture of all bloody things. Just aweful.

i would hope that we all do our bit to prevent such happenings in this country. Sometimes it's a bit easy to say T.i.T. over the froth of our beers and participate from the peanut gallery. If we all offered a more mature demanding approach, perhaps we can save the next incident from happening.

Or just sit back in Nana and Patt's bars saying T.i.T. for the rest of our lives...

[masterbiker49]

Lifts usually are run by electric motors driving traction cables or counterweight systems and they have automatic brakes in the event of slippage but I don't think they have anything to offset a cable breakage.

Just the opposite, the emergency braking system is meant to handle exactly that emergency.

Elisha Otis would demonstrate his invention in front of crowds by being hoisted up in an open wooden elevator and then having the rope holding it cut to demonstrate that it would not fall more than a few feet.

U Beat me to it.An unnessary incident but it WILL be swept under carpet,TIT

[meatboy]

when we first moved to korat we purchased quite a bit from this furniture shop on all floors we never new they had a lift,its sad that a member of staff lost her life as my wf was very friendly with one of them,hope the others make a full recovery.

[vijer]

As with all other rules and regulations in Thailand: They are there, just as in any other (developed) country.

Problem is enforcement, maintenance and safety-awareness.

Usually, a (small) disaster need to happen first before something will be done to prevent it in the future.

Actually several small disasters would have to happen before any Thai's get upset and ask the government to do anything.

I heard on the Thai English News a few days back that about 20% of the flood prevention retaining walls that had been built since the 2011 disaster have been damaged (in recent rains and minimal flooding). Interpret that to mean that they were built to Thai standards, i.e. cheap concrete(made with more sand than cement, little or no aggregate and too much/little water), mixed a bucket at a time by hand, slapped on and between some small bricks, NO or very little reinforcement (rebar) and no or improper foundation. Destined to fall down within a few short years.

Point being, don't expect there to be any maintenance of elevators except maybe in major high rises.

[tigermonkey]

Such a terrible tragedy - we can only hope for the rapid recover of the survivors and peace for the families of the decesased.

As usual, both the OP and the replies are rife with uninformed speculation. Nowhere is it stated whether this lift/elevator is a traction or an hydraulic device. However the OP assumes traction as do the speculators from TV. The OP even goes so far as to postulate that it might have been a broken "sling chain" - no doubt, he heard the phrase somewhere and decided to add it to his expertise. I have considerable experience with elevators as a building owner/ manager and I have never seen a commercial elevator which used "sling chains" - these are usually used on construction elevators and cranes.

Now the larger problem ! To the best of my knowlege there has never been a passenger death attributed to a free-falling car in modern elevator/lift history - injuries, yes, but never a death until now - correct me if I am wrong, please. Even the bomber crash into the Empire State Building and the events of 911, which both caused free-falling cars, did not result in death from the free-fall.

Could this be a first for Thailand in all of world history ?

[Kilgore Trout]

It doesn't only happen in Thailand. People get killed in lifts the world over, including USA and UK. Here's just one example - http://www.dailymail...nge-woman.html. You can find plenty more yourselves. If the company were negligent they should be punished, but this is nothing to do with Thailand in general. If it was there would be a lot more of these incidents, which there aren't. Some of you need to get over your constant anti-Thailand rants.

Think of it like this; the most ill behaved child in the class often gets blamed for things he didn't do; teacher comes in, sees a kid with a bloody nose and assumes X did it.

Same thing here; if Thailand was on the ball and wasn't known for case after case after case after case of gross negligence and incompetence then people probably wouldn't be pointing the finger, now would they?

[theajarn]

Are emeg brakes not required in Thailand?

Are brains and common decency required for many things in Thailand (like driving etc. etc. construction etc. etc. business... etc. etc.)

[DGS1244]

Are emeg brakes not required in Thailand?

Yes they are and even if a cable snaps it should still not drop.

[Payboy]

From the photo in the OP, it looks more like a homemade lift or something that was fabricated in small shed. Probably just a chain and hoist mechanism.

[Monkeyrobot]

Is there a Thai word for maintenance?

Chang is the word, no trully.

[Crushdepth]

Is there a Thai word for maintenance?

I think its 'alai na?'

[Whidbeyboy]

"first legally recognised death"???? <deleted>? Nobody commented on this did they? Was the first thing I noted as being a weird comment.

[Crushdepth]

"first legally recognised death"???? <deleted>? Nobody commented on this did they? Was the first thing I noted as being a weird comment.

Not counting elevator technicians squashed against the roof.

[Jim walker]

Maintenance isn’t that the thing that ‘costs money’ well that’ has to be cut out for a start,

RIP to the poor lady and a speedy recovery to all those injured.

[MaxYakov]

Is there a Thai word for maintenance?

'extra work'

Tomorrow (extra unnecessary work).

Edited November 20, 2012 by MaxYakov

[MaxYakov]

"first legally recognised death"???? <deleted>? Nobody commented on this did they? Was the first thing I noted as being a weird comment.

Does it imply that there have been previously illegally-recognized elevator deaths? Maybe extralegal is the better word.

Edited November 20, 2012 by MaxYakov

[MaxYakov]

investigation will determine whether the accident resulted from recklessness.

i hope they mean negligence.

Maybe they were referring to the passengers?

[tigermonkey]

"first legally recognised death"???? <deleted>? Nobody commented on this did they? Was the first thing I noted as being a weird comment.

Does it imply that there have been previously illegally-recognized elevator deaths? Maybe extralegal is the better word.

No death has ever been legally recognized as being caused by a free fallimg car. All deaths related to elevators have been caused by other events ( crushing, trying to escape, surfing, falling into a shaft, etc.). The only deaths which have not been ascertained are those from 911 - it is believed that more than 200 people were in World Trade's many elevators when the planes hit. Almost all of these people died. Certainly many elevator/lift cables were severed, and some elevators fell. If occupants were killed by free-falling cars, the shafts being full of burning jet fuel, the crush of the collapse or other cause, is completely unknown. . Therefore there is no legally recognized cause of death for these victims.

[cup-O-coffee]

Upsetting to hear about this, but what can you expect, and can you truly act surprised?

Consider that Thailand is the hub for self-made maintenance workers, electricians, constructionand engineering experts, etc. There is no tracking system, and any system that exists is dubious at best due to the well known "white lie" cancer that spreads throughout their gene-pool.

If you do not believe me, then step outside and look up at the poles used to run popwer cables and lines throughout the infrastructure. This is merely one small example.

If you still do not believe me then how fast can the average person tell you where to go or who to call if you have a need for an electrician or plumber?

No; this incident is what I consider the collateral damage from pure lunacy in a lunatic environment. It isn't a question of when it will stop, but moreso when will it happen next and how serious a threat to one's self? You cannot predict the frequency of or rate of lunacy in an environment of lunatics.

[ableguy]

Lots of rabid speculation as usual, sad thing is most of it is probably true, however we all accept it and still choose to live here, but still a very sad story.