Big cities investigate elevators
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Global Times, July 7, 2011
In response to the horrific capital city subway accident on Tuesday, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou governments launched high-profile emergency inspections of city escalators and elevators.
In the Beijing accident, a subway escalator had reversed direction, killing a 13-year-old boy and injuring 30.
All escalators and moving sidewalks in subways, airports, shopping malls and supermarkets would be checked, the Beijing Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision announced on Wednesday morning on its website.
"The bureau held an emergency meeting this morning, and a one-month plan, highlighting inspections of facilities in crowded areas, has been started today," bureau publicity official Wang He told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Some 160 unsafe escalators in Yizhuang, Changping and Xizhimen railway stations have been halted, the Legal Mirror reported on Wednesday.
Elevators in older residential communities have been included in the inspections, Li Lianghua, chief of the Department of Safety Supervision for Special Equipment, was quoted as saying in the Beijing-based newspaper on Wednesday.
Shanghai Shentong Metro Group announced on Wednesday it had begun citywide inspections of its escalators, focusing on chains, brakes and reverse-proof safeguards.
A total four out of Shanghai's 1,725 subway station escalators had no block on reversal, according to the group's press officer Yin Wei.
Those four escalators had been closed temporarily, he said. "We've asked escalator producers to add that facility by next Monday."
Passengers were also advised to note the emergency stop buttons on both ends of escalators.
Routine checks and maintenance are conducted every 15 days on top of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision's annual inspections, the group claimed in a statement on Wednesday.
An inspection record for an escalator at the Shanghai Stadium subway station indicated it in fact hadn't been checked for over a year, Shanghai-based news portal Eastday reported. The metro operator on Wednesday said it would check and fix the problem.
Escalator reversal accidents have bedeviled both Shanghai subway stations and shopping malls, the latest in Huaihai Parkson Shopping Center in May injuring a pregnant woman and nine others.
Guangzhou Metro also announced inspections on Wednesday of all stations around the city, the Guangzhou-based News Express reported on Wednesday.
More railway staff would stand by escalators to maintain passenger order, according to the report.
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