Add dangerous lifts to Pattaya hazards - ten injured as hotel elevator plunges

 

Picture: Thairath

 

PATTAYA: -- Nine district officials at a seminar in a Pattaya hotel plunged from the seventh floor to the first floor as an elevator fell down the shaft.

 

Then to add insult to serious injury the hotel staff refused to help saying they had to wait for the insurance company to arrive.

 

After the district chiefs mounted their own rescue efforts and help arrived the hotel finally took some responsibility for the accident.

 

They face prosecution for negligence but can only be fined 10,000 baht.

 

There were ten people in the lift that went from the second floor to the seventh where the guests were staying. As one man was getting out the lift suddenly fell.

 

Somjai Thee-oat, 50, from Phitsanuloke said he was lucky to still be alive. His clothing was ripped as he managed to scramble to safety. But nine others plunged down in the lift.

 

They were taken to hospital where one was in a serious condition. The accident happened on Monday evening when 128 local officials from all over Thailand were staying in the central Pattaya hotel.

 

It was not named in the Thai Rath report and the condition of the injured was not reported.

 

Tanakrit Akaradechkunchorn, 51, an official from Mae Rim, Chiang Mai, said that he was waiting to board another lift. He said he did not hear any warning sound that his colleagues' lift was overloaded.

 

He said that the hotel were reluctant to help at all. Only when inspectors arrived did they decide to pay the bills of those injured.

 

Police are investigating and are looking at the lift maintenance records ahead of possible charges for negligence.

 

But they said that the law only allows for a fine of 10,000 baht.

 

Source: Thairath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-03-08

If only they'd jumped up just before impact

Maintenance records?. Yes they are currently being produced for inspection.

 

Maintenance carried out by qualified mechanics.? Yes sure.

 

For a lift to fall uncontrolled, there had to be a failure of many safety controls simultaneously. More likely, the safety were bridged or bypassed because they detected faults and stopped b the lifts operating.

 

Much easier in Thailand to remove the warning signs rather than fix the actual problem.

 

 

Were they attending a building safety seminar?

Must be an old hotel (>30 years) to have marble and wood on the same wall...

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

If only they'd jumped up just before impact

But how would you know when to jump?

Somebody stole the emergency breaks and tried to install them to their private pick-up truck in a try to move the carnage from the roads to the all so ever complaining tourists.

I recently stayed in that hotel. I guess, never again.

Is it because of that computer crime act, that there is no name given?

7 minutes ago, Wiggy said:

But how would you know when to jump?

The theory is that you jump up and down, therefore giving you a 50% chance of being in the air upon impact. That is the theory anyway.

Please repeat slowly after me  -----   main ten ance.

Overloading should not be an issue as there is lots of redundency built into cable system. If they are overloaded the cables stretch and at the lower levels the lift has docking problems and the doors won't open. There are obviously a couple of safety systems not working most probably bypassed. 

lifts have a fail safe making quick decent impossible.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/elevator-plunges-are-rare-because-brakes-and-cables-provide-fail-safe-protections/2013/06/07/e44227f6-cc5a-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html

wonder if it was removed on this lift.

13 minutes ago, Wiggy said:

But how would you know when to jump?

You keep jumping up and down, that way you have a 50% chance of surviving.?

Ask the chief of police is this one of the natural wonders he was on about. Can only be fined 10000 baht amazing thailand. You just cant make it up

No need to add it to my list. It's already on there. And no reason to just add to Pattaya list, better would be Thailand list. Maintaining lifts properly is not cheap (I know, I know, a drop is more expensive to fix, but planning ahead not strong suit). Run systems until they fail seems to be rule of thumb.  10,000 baht fine? Shiver me timbers.

 "... hotel staff refused to help saying they had to wait for the insurance company to arrive." Bloody hell. Management should go to jail, and who knows, maybe since government official types were injured, might even happen this one time.

This is nothing to joke about. Lift safety is assumed by everyone and it's rare that one malfunctions like this, be it Pattaya, Bangkok, Thailand or anywhere in the world. They have it figured out. Having been in a lift when the power went out I can tell you how terrifying it is for those inside. 

Everybody is mentioning safety features not working.

More likely they're missing.

Just now, Srikcir said:

Everybody is mentioning safety features not working.

More likely they're missing.

And never installed in the first place, to save a few baht.

8 minutes ago, BruceMangosteen said:

This is nothing to joke about. Lift safety is assumed by everyone and it's rare that one malfunctions like this, be it Pattaya, Bangkok, Thailand or anywhere in the world. They have it figured out. Having been in a lift when the power went out I can tell you how terrifying it is for those inside. 

You say that but wasn't there a similar incident, also in Pattaya area, some years ago?

No hotel name? 

28 minutes ago, frimu said:

I recently stayed in that hotel. I guess, never again.

Is it because of that computer crime act, that there is no name given?

Tell us then

Isn't it ironic that government officials were the victims of this lift accident?!? Presumably one of their brethren signed on the last lift safety check report.... for a fee, of course!

do you know how all the "conspiracy theorists" on TV are mocked for their unfounded statements?  ok...i used to live in a condo complex in bkk...turns out the condo committee was taking kickbacks from all the vendors who provided maintenance to the condo development...and we (residents who found out they stole 1 million baht) found the cctv footage of the condo security and management allowing a "repairman" from the elevator company purposefully damage the elevator mechanisms...it came to light because one of the idiot thai repairmen did such a good job in breaking the elevator that the intentional damage was obvious...anything can happen here, and thais know no limits to their lazy embrace of theft...

Years ago I stayed in a hotel in Bangkok and when my family hopped into the lift it sunk about a foot. Total family weight less than 300 kilos.

If you read the numerous complaints by customers over the last 5 years on Trip Advisor, you would realize that this hotel has a terrible reputation for maintenance, cleanliness and couldn't care less staff. Having been involved in lift maintenance I can tell you that there is no way that a well maintained lift could have plunged seven floors without the emergency brake flying out and arresting its descent.

But how would you know when to jump?

it doesn't matter because jumping doesn't save you from damage.
Mythbusters TV series tried it a couple of times in different series it always ended badly for "Buster"

Strange they didn't mention the name of the hotel, what about tourists who have a booked room there for a holiday in Thailand?

Now they will cancel it, no matter which hotel it was.

Now they all know it's only a 10,000 baht fine!  I wonder what they do now?  ( Or not do)

Pay the 10,000 fine and move on.

 

Next .........

Or argue "overloading".

 

If that doesn't work, get the collective weights of all the "passengers" on board.