News reports of the last several months citing elevator accidents have prompted me to come out with some useful guidelines or precautionary measures for the elevator users in general and society office bearers in particular. During the last eight months, from January 2023 till August 2023, there were 28 fatal accidents throughout the country, in which 23 deaths and 34 serious injuries were reported.
If you are an office bearer of any society or an owner of any premises having an elevator, you must read and follow this carefully to avoid the hassles which you may have to deal with in case of an accident in your building elevator. With fatal accidents, it becomes a police case and one has to go through complete police enquiries and investigations.
In case if the matter goes to court, then the society committee members need to attend the court also. They may not be at fault but they will be under psychological pressure till the matter ends or concludes. If you are well aware of rules and have kept proper records of your elevators, you can save yourselves from unnecessary complications.
I have worked out some important guidelines and precautionary measures, which should certainly help you from any financial or criminal liability and harassment by the investigating agencies.
In case of any fatal accident, please take the following measures:
1) Close the elevator in ‘as-is’ condition.
2) Take photographs of the accident site.
3) Barricade the floor area where the accident took place.
4) Inform nearest police station and lift inspector office in writing.
5) Keep the record of every one visiting the accident site and action taken by them. This includes rescue persons, rescue agencies, technicians.
In addition, as a society you must keep following records ready for the police or for the investigating agency.
Lift licence copy.
Valid service contract agreement.
Last service report duly signed by service contractor and society authorised person.
Recommendation or suggestions made by service providers in the last 2-3 months.
Compliance of service providers suggestions / recommendations.
Last Safety audit report from service provider and its compliance, if any.
Latest Safety audit report from any elevator auditor, and its compliances, if any.
Last lift inspection report by lift inspector and its compliances, if any.
As a precautionary measure, you can have third-party accident insurance for your elevator, which can help you in case any financial liability comes to the society. The Maharashtra Lifts, Escalators and Moving Walks Act 2017-page 10 clause 23 also mentions the third-party insurance.
These records can help you in proving that you have followed all the rules and have monitored all the required safety checks timely and everything was in order. This should save you from complications vis-à-vis police inquiries and any possible liability.
(The writer is an elevator auditor, founder of the Elevator Safety Forum India, plus an active member of the National Safety Council and Society for Reliability and Safety)
