Swiss tourist dies in bizarre Phuket hotel accident

[Guest]

At this point in the thread, we are witnessing two statical outliers.

(1) This horrid and unusual accident

(2) An almost civil tone and lack of wild murder theories by the Thai Visa Criminal Investigation Unit.

By now we should be up to some reference about the Tuk Tuk mafia.

Well done gents .. keep up the good work !

[kannot]

Just another example of "Thai maintenance" at its best, same as Tescos aircon installers who told me "no need green wire" when installing aircon..............soon got rid of them.

Now a lot of fuss will be made, then next week the same lift will do the same again and on it goes.

I did hear a good story recently of a condo block in Chiang Rai where many of the Frangs threw the committee out (using a lawyer) who were running the condo block, they then stopped over 40 water leaks and sorted out the real maintenance, something the Thai maintenance hadnt done for 5+ years.

"Maintenance " a dirty word in Thailand.

Never mind Im sure the pittance of any compensation will make it all better...........

[MockingJay]

As sad as this one is, here's something I could not resist to post:

[ExPratt]

Great maintenance of the elevator. The elevators in our building were cleaned yesterday.

They could hold up to 8 persons but having more than 2 they stop working. And this has been already for 5 years. And every year they have new maintenance stickers. You know the ones you can buy at every hardware store in China Town.

I don't doubt it , its a 500baht a night 2 star

[Guest]

Just another example of "Thai maintenance" at its best, same as Tescos aircon installers who told me "no need green wire" when installing aircon..............soon got rid of them.

Now a lot of fuss will be made, then next week the same lift will do the same again and on it goes.

I did hear a good story recently of a condo block in Chiang Rai where many of the Frangs threw the committee out (using a lawyer) who were running the condo block, they then stopped over 40 water leaks and sorted out the real maintenance, something the Thai maintenance hadnt done for 5+ years.

"Maintenance " a dirty word in Thailand.

Never mind Im sure the pittance of any compensation will make it all better...........

Diaper change !! Aisle three !!

[cumgranosalum]

come on....lifts are meant to be foolproof....what happened and who is responsible,.....no it isn't "just one of those things"!

[Crossy]

A poor taste troll post has been removed.

Let's keep it civil and on-topic.

[simon43]

If that's the case the lift company will be in deep , deep shit/

No it will not be in deep dodo - this is Thailand...

[Reigntax]

Great maintenance of the elevator. The elevators in our building were cleaned yesterday.

They could hold up to 8 persons but having more than 2 they stop working. And this has been already for 5 years. And every year they have new maintenance stickers. You know the ones you can buy at every hardware store in China Town.

There must be another issue causing your problem as all lifts are fitted with a counterbalance which compensates for the carriage weight plus half the maximum load. The maximum electrical input is therefore required to drive an empty lift down or a full lift up. 4 persons in a lift designed for 8 would in theory be the balanced weight where minimum Input is required in both up and down directions.

As for the cause of this death, there is more to be uncovered as both proposed theories are not possible if the inbuilt safety functions of the lift are working properly and have not been bridged or bypassed.

[tajtom]

Please the gap in the lift is tiny <deleted> >. Is this a lift with a 1 foot gap or what ?

This lift should be removed and the building managers sued

sorry to the family but Thailand anythging is possible. When I ride I sometimes look up as well. Just in case the sky falls....

[bbbbooboo]

yawn........only in Thailand could something as bizarre as this happen. RIP to the deceased,

[jackanapes]

Phuket rears its head once again the advertising this place is getting these days is beyond belief there is always something happening and now this an unfortunate tourist died an accidental death on a malfunctioning lift RIP

[sydneyjed]

You could not imagine what the poor guy went through...very tragic this and feel for his family!RIP

[duanebigsby]

yawn........only in Thailand could something as bizarre as this happen. RIP to the deceased,

Google elevator accidents worldwide.

While rare, they happen all over the world.

[F4UCorsair]

My understanding is, that under normal operating conditions, a lift door door couldn't/shouldn't open unless the car is at that door. There would surely be an interlock that should prevent that happening, but systems do fail, components go out of tolerance due to age, etc., and accidents do happen.

This is a very sad incident.

Edited May 22, 2015 by F4UCorsair

[Reigntax]

Please the gap in the lift is tiny <deleted> >. Is this a lift with a 1 foot gap or what ?

This lift should be removed and the building managers sued

sorry to the family but Thailand anythging is possible. When I ride I sometimes look up as well. Just in case the sky falls....

When the lift floor is level with a floor landing the gap is small but the landing and exterior doors extend into the lift shaft. A gap of 200-250 mm is normal between the inner car doors and the lift shaft to accommodate travelling guide rails although these are usually mounted on the sides.

When the lift car is between floors if you were to open the interior door a reasonable size gap does exist.

[gemguy]

I was stuck in an old lift between floors while going up to the 7th floor of an old building in Silom road area

After a minute or so of no movement I could hear people talking outside the elevator and slightly above me...so I was shouting Hello ...Hello.

Those people waiting for the lift on the next level up forced open the doors and there was a gap of about 2 feet between the floor and the inside roof of the elevator.

I could see their legs and knee caps and up the skirts of 2 girls standing there looking down at me while some of the Thai people knelt down and looked inside to seeing how many people there were in the elevator while we all kind of laughed and waited.

After about 2 or 3 minutes the elevator remained stuck and then, one Thai guy was saying: "Here, grab my hand and I will pull you out".... while kneeling down and reaching his hand inside for me to grab.

I declined, thinking what would happen if the elevator started again and began to descend while I was half way through being helped out..... while the Thai guy kept on offering his hand saying: "Hurry, hurry I pull you out........but I continued to decline.

Finally the elevator lurched upwards and the guy pulled back his hand in plenty of time and up I go and finally got off the on the 7th floor.

Turned out it was lunch time and maybe 20 people total , at different floors, were pressing the buttons all at the same time and the elevator jammed on its way up.

I think I would not have faired well if I was being pulled out and the elevator suddenly started going down....Ouch and double Ouch...Hunch Back forever...lol

Cheers

Edited May 22, 2015 by gemguy

[Lokie]

My understanding is, that under normal operating conditions, a lift door door couldn't/shouldn't open unless the car is at that door. There would surely be an interlock that should prevent that happening, but systems do fail, components go out of tolerance due to age, etc., and accidents do happen.

This is a very sad incident.

+1 on above; interlocks are fitted but as with everything things can fail for a number of reasons. The 2nd Police thoery is what I would lean to (I worked as an apprentice Lift Engineer when a young man in the UK) as I remember in them days most doors were activated by simple microswitches as the lift cage passed a set point (there was double switches for redundancy -failsafe) but if not serviced on regular basis then one could be inoperative, if the other fails then you can have a safety problem. I am sure modern elevators have electronic switches based on above principles, also lots of kids killed back in 70s/80s UK as they used to ride lifts/eleveators on housing estates with High rise flats on top of lifts between floors, I remember a Girl of around 13 yrs old who was de-capitated doing this in Manchester. Lifts if maintained correctly are pretty safe but if failure occurs then activate alarm and wait for rescue by the Fire dept/engineers staff, never start doing the Bruce Willlis act, as movies tend not to be based on real facts of reality and what is possible in real life or safe...

RIP to the poor bloke

[ableguy]

Lifts do get stuck from time to time but they are all supposed to have an alarm. Reception girl says she heard cry for help but the article says nothing about alarm.

If I was in a lift that stopped I would press the alarm and even if the staff could not speak my language they would make themselves known.

If your head was trapped how the hell would you press the alarm button, Sherlock. ?

[arrowsdawdle]

I'm shocked!

The police theories are actually within the bounds of possibility.

As soon as I read that they had two theories, I would have bet money that one of them was suicide.

Give them time. A supervising commander needs to investigate and since the only two times in Thailand when things are as they appear to be are during a coup and when paying a bar fine, this could be a case of wanting to avoid the mass exodus of a hotel due to a lift falling. Somehow, this will be the foreign man's fault.

[KarenBravo]

Somehow, this will be the foreign man's fault.

Well............most elevators are made in Japan, or Korea.

We're off the hook...........

[redandyellow]

Every single day - Former Bangkok Post Correspondent Bernard Trink proves that when he coined the famous phrase "This is Thailand" (TIT), he was a bloody prophet of the highest order

[balo]

I watched a shocking surveillance video from China once where a guy was trapped because the lift was suddenly moving and one of his legs was crushed so he was stuck there bleeding to death. RIP

[ldnguy]

The theory about the doors opening while the lift car was not at that floor is nonsense,as the door opening machinery is mounted on the lift car,if the car is not at that floor the doors cannot open automatically.

The big gap can be found between the lift car floor and the landing doors ,if the inside/car doors are opened manually and the lift car is partway up a lower floor. Looking at the pic there are two landing doors that both open in the same direction so the outer door, nearest policeman, is further from the lift car floor therefore there is a gap maybe 200mm /8"

What nonsense. There have been many cases around the world of the doors opening when the lift is on another floor. I don't know how these things work but I know for certain that it's happened many times.

Here's one to get you started. http://shanghaiist.com/2015/03/07/elevator-accident.php.

[LivinginKata]

Inflammatory posts being removed.

[glasswort]

It is to be hoped that whomever is responsible for the lift maintenance, or lack thereof, is held responsible and that the victim's family will be suitably compensated. However we all know that this is Thailand and it will never happen. Hotel operators are notoriously bad at maintenance, after all it costs money and this cost has to come off the bottom line.

[EmptyHead]

Terrible way to go as many have said ,Must have been a terrifying few minutes

The 2 possible reasons they give

1The first is that the victim, who was staying on the fourth floor, had taken the elevator down but it became stuck at the third floor. Possibly he managed to open the car doors but then fell into the gap between the car and the shaft wall.

2 The other possibility is that when the man called the elevator up to fourth floor, the car was already stuck on the third floor. But the doors opened anyway, he walked in and fell, becoming trapped.

I think one where the door opened without a lift there and he fell in,That could happen quite easily most people do not look to see if the lift is actually there before walking through the doors and in normal circumstances you shouldn't have to. If that's the case the lift company will be in deep , deep shit/

1 Suggests that he opened the inner doors himself, I cant see firstly why you would do that and secondly how do you end up upside down wedged solid between the lift and the shaft.there is also no mention of any alarm , if they had one Could well be wrong maybe bad translation and freak accidents are sometimes impossible to explain

RiP

Yeah, I am sure the lift company is peeing it's pants with fear as we speak.

[mango66]

A BULL SHIT of explanation -

never seen sucha gap beetween cabine and wall that you can slide in,

and he could call for help,

but not breath !

I beat on, they tried to move the elevator, by what they squeeced the living victim to death !!

The sswiss man were killed by Thai elevator technician or some other scumbags which

tried non professional to move the lift !!

This guys have to be arrestet for MURDER !!!

[Maestro]

Lifts do get stuck from time to time but they are all supposed to have an alarm. Reception girl says she heard cry for help but the article says nothing about alarm.

If I was in a lift that stopped I would press the alarm and even if the staff could not speak my language they would make themselves known.

This man was not in the lift, was he? He was in the space between the lift cabin and the lift's shaft wall. There is no alarm button there to press.

[grumpyoldman]

Sure should make everyone think twice about stepping into dodgy building lifts................I think of the one up to that 9th floor restaurant.