Minato Ward 2006 elevator accident

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The Minato Ward 2006 elevator accident was an incident in June 2006 which shook Japanese public confidence in the safety of elevators around the country.

1 The accident
- 1.1 Investigations into Negligence on the part of Minato Ward housing corporation
2 Progress in Schindler investigation
3 Public concern beyond the Schindler Case
4 Footnotes

[edit] The accident

In June 2006, in Minato-ku, Tokyo, a 16-year old high school student was killed by a Schindler elevator as he was backing out of an elevator with his bicycle when the elevator suddenly rose with the doors still open, crushing his skull. Investigations began related to this fatality.^[1]

In the process of this investigation, the safety of elevators in Japan came under question. That elevators are not infallible came as surprise to many people, especially when it was discovered that of the 8,800 Schindler elevators installed in Japan, 85 have trapped people.^[2] But entrapments are not really uncommon. The Japan Elevator Association disclosed that 9200 entrapments happened in Japan in 2004 in elevators of the big five Japanese elevator manufacturers (Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi, Toshiba, Otis and Fujitec). In addition, many elevators were reported to have suddenly stopped between floors, or had the doors fail to open when arriving at a floor, or made strange noises.

Results from a recent investigation in Hiroshima showed that 34% of Schindler elevators in the city have had problems.^[3] Japan has already ordered full inspections of the country's entire set of Schindler elevators, with elevators of all manufactureres being inspected in government buildings.

As of June 14, 2006, the precise cause of the accident has still not been confirmed. The investigations by the police are still ongoing. It should be noted that elevator maintenance was carried out by a Japanese maintenance company and not by Schindler since 2005. The elevators in question were maintained by Japan Power in 2005, and by SEC Elevator in 2006. The International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun reported on June 14 that "Loose bolts and worn brake pads, evidence of poor maintenance, likely played a central role in the elevator accident". In the article it can also be read that "it is the responsibility of the maintenance company to ensure that such bolts are tightly fastened".

Schindler, Minato Ward public housing corporation and the Japanese elevator maintenance company have been publicly criticised as showing an evasive attitude to the Japanese police and the condominum's inhabitants.^[4] They did not respond to or attend any public meetings for the first 8 days. Although they claim that they are fully supporting all investigation attempts, a recent NHK News reporter has said that Schindler Group's President's apology on June 12 has raised more questions than it has answered.

[edit] Investigations into Negligence on the part of Minato Ward housing corporation

Schindler points out that the maintenance of the elevator was carried out by a non-affiliated maintenance company and that the company does not have an indication of a product design mistake so far. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, authorities suspect problems with the elevators may have been due to irregularities in the control panel which police suspect went unreported as a result of negligence on the part of the housing corporation whom they are now questioning.^[5]

The Minato Ward public housing corporation has decided on replacing all 5 Schindler elevators in the condominium with elevators from another manufacturer.

[edit] Progress in Schindler investigation

As of June 28, 2006, the precise cause of the accident has still not been confirmed. The investigations by the police are still ongoing.

June 14, 2006. The International Herald Tribune (Herald Asahi) reports that "Loose bolts and worn brake pads, evidence of poor maintenance, likely played a central role in the elevator accident." ... "It is the responsibility of the maintenance company to ensure that such bolts are tightly fastened."

June 14, 2006. Investigations reveal 6 cases in Japan where the elevator moved with the doors still open.^[6]

Manufactured between 1997-1998, they used the same circuit board (now being investigated by Schindler) model. In the Chiba case, Schindler is still maintaining the elevator in question. Questions about why some elevators came with the defect and why some took 7 years to show the defects have been raised, but Schindler Elevator KK's head Ken Smith claims that it might be the deteriorating PCB. It is worth noting that the Fanling, Hong Kong case occurred on an elevator installed in 1997 also.^{[citation needed]}

June 15, 2006. According to the Mainichi Newspaper, an employee of SEC testified to the police that he did not know how to adjust the brake of the "fatal" elevator and that he just let them as they were.

June 16, 2006. Schindler has admitted that a software problem caused the problem with several elevators in Japan,^[7] Elevators manufactured between 1991-93 are affected, although Schindler claims that this faulty code was not a material safety risk. The problem is that the elevator doors could still reverse 0.5s after the elevator starts moving, and when the door reverses when the elevator moves, the elevator is not halted. Schindler will upgrade the software code for the affected elevators by the end of June 17. However, this was not a factor in the Minato Ward accident which is still under investigation. On NHK 9 O'Clock News reports Schindler K.K. representative said that the programming error was detected and fixed for a number of elevators of that model some time ago but that it may be that service workers doing maintenance on these once code corrected elevators could have unwittingly gone and reprogrammed them again with the old codes, thus leading to the malfunctions. Initially, 9 elevators were identified to have the problem, but the list later expanded to 52.

June 17, 2006. NHK reports that a problem in the brake has been found in the Minato elevator as replacing the brake yielded no operational problems. The motor was confirmed to be off when the elevator killed Hirosuke Ichiwaka. Experts have said (as quoted in the Yomiuri source at the end of this paragraph) if the motor was on, the boy would have received much more than bruising. Police are still investigating what caused the brake failure.^[8]

June 18, 2006. SEC, the independent company in charge of maintaining the Schindler elevator at Minato Ward, was revealed by broadcasting group NHK that an inspection of the captioned elevator just 9 days before the accident said that the brake and all components were working properly.

June 22, 2006. Minato Ward has confirmed that it will be replacing 2 of the Schindler Elevators (1 which killed 16 year old Ichikawa Hirosuke) to Mitsubishi elevators.^[9] The cost of replacement will be 168,000,000 yen (approx. US$1.46 Million).

June 22, 2006. Kyodo News reports: "Police suspect a Japanese maintenance company for Schindler elevators in a Tokyo apartment building had failed to follow checkup manuals before a fatal accident on June 3 on one of the units, investigation sources said Thursday." (...) "The police suspect some of the checks by SEC Elevator Co. on the elevator's brake system were insufficient against the checkup manuals concluded by the maintenance company and a public housing corporation affiliated with the Minato Ward office, the sources said. The police believe a brake malfunction was one of causes of the accident which killed 16-year-old Hirosuke Ichikawa at the building in Minato Ward."

July 5, 2006. More Schindler door problems come to light: According to the Japan Elevator Association, the incidence of accidents in which passengers are trapped inside elevators made by the five major elevator manufacturers is on average 0.15 percent per month. However, in the case of those made by Schindler, the figure ranges from 0.4 percent to slightly less than 0.5 percent--about three times higher than average. ^[10]. Unfortunately the Japan Elevator Association data did not distinguish custom built elevators from commodity elevators. Custom built elevators have tend to have a higher defect rate. Elevator maintainace companies, like Schindler, with a higher proportion of custom elevators will have higher entrapment ratios.

August 14, 2006. On NHK's News Watch 9, it was revealed that the elevator which killed Ichikawa Horosuke had anomalies in its brakes that did not relate to worn out pads. When tests were conducted, it showed that the disc brake was using 20% less current than other brakes of the same model.

November 20, 2006. Work on replacing the 'deadly' Schindler elevator that killed Ichikawa has been replaced with a new Mitsubishi Elevator (according to http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20061121a8.html). The mayor of Minato Ward has test rided the elevator and residents are reporting a much smoother ride. For the past few months, workers have been replacing the elevator in record time by working around the clock. The other elevator will be replaced by February.

[edit] Public concern beyond the Schindler Case

Public concern over the Minato Ward case has not been limited merely to Schindler elevators. The Asia Times Online reports that in response to a flood of inquiries from customers, including building owners, the third-largest domestic elevator company, Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems Corp. is offering free inspections of their elevators, while Mitsubishi Electric Corp., the leading firm, and Hitachi Ltd, which is the second-largest, are responding to requests on a case-by-case basis.^[11] A recent Japanese survey shows that 65% of the students interviewed are uncomfortable with elevators following the Minato incident.^[12].

In Hong Kong, following the Minato incident, many news agencies are drawing the similarities between the Minato case and the 2002 Fanling Hong Kong case. Thus, Hong Kong's Public Housing Authority has been questioned about the 33 public estates with Schindler elevators.^[13] The Housing Authority has said that all of its elevators are maintained by the original manufacturer (in Hong Kong's case, by "Schindler Lifts Hong Kong Limited", a subsidiary of Swire Asia Pacific/Jardine Matheson) and all elevators are inspected fully once every week. In comparison, Hong Kong law requires a full annual examination every year, load testing every 5 years, and an inspection every month. Some buildings have inspections every 2 weeks.

On July 20th, 2006, it was reported by Asahi, one of Japan's largest newspapers, that an increasing number of software problems have been spotted, leading to 113 elevators requiring a software replacement (as of July 20) - Source: http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0720/TKY200607200560.html.