BCA to intensify checks on lifts ahead of stiffer regulations

SINGAPORE — Following three high profile incidents in five months, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) is stepping up its audit checks on lifts across the island — especially those in Housing and Development Board (HDB) blocks — ahead of legislative changes to be introduced later this year to beef up lift regulations and standards.

The aim of the changes is to improve standards and ensure compliance by all lift owners, manufacturers and contractors, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong on Friday (March 12) in a Facebook post. A review of the regulations and standards to keep them on a par with international benchmarks is ongoing.

In response to TODAY’s queries, the BCA said it began stepping up its audit checks at the end of last year.

“In light of recent lift incidents in HDB blocks, BCA is stepping up efforts ... paying more attention on areas where an incident has occurred before moving to other areas,” said a spokesperson from the statutory board.

The BCA’s independent audit checks come as professional engineers continue their investigations on each of the lift incidents.

Each of these inspections takes around one to two hours. If a lift is found to need further investigation, maintenance or rectification works, the BCA will temporarily suspend operations for contractors to carry out the required works.

Urging for patience from residents with any disruptions, Mr Wong said “we want to be thorough in our checks and cannot compromise on safety”.

The latest incident happened in Ang Mo Kio Street 31 on Monday when a domestic helper was trapped for 90 minutes after the lift she was in suddenly shot up 17 floors, causing her to fall and hit her back.

In January this year, a lift at Block 114, Edgefield Plains continued to move even though one of its car door panels was still open.

The most serious incident involving lifts recently happened on Oct 9 last year where an elderly woman’s hand was severed by lift doors in a freak accident at Tah Ching Road. The 85-year-old also fell and broke her leg.

In a press release yesterday, the BCA said lift owners, such as town councils, play an important role in ensuring that their lifts are maintained in accordance to prevailing standards.

The Building Maintenance and Strata Management (Lift and Building Maintenance) Regulations stipulates maintenance works by registered lift contractors at least once a month.

Commenting on the BCA’s move, Marsiling-Yew Tee Town Council chairman Alex Yam said that while additional checks would help ensure that maintenance work on lifts are kept up to standard, it is “impossible to prevent 100 per cent (of incidents)”.

He said: “There will be times where unforeseen circumstances will lead to incidents happening, but what we want to do is ensure that in the maintenance and inspection regime, things that can be predicted and prevented, we will take as many of these out as possible. But having done all of that, there may be a very, very small percentage of unforeseen failures.”

Mr Yam added that general managers from the town councils attended a briefing on the issue on Friday, and will be sharing more details in a joint release today.