Elderly woman in stable condition after Tah Ching Road lift accident

SINGAPORE – The elderly woman whose hand was severed in a lift accident is currently in stable condition, Channel NewsAsia understands. The incident took place yesterday (Oct 9) at Block 322 Tah Ching Road.

According to Jurong Town Council, the incident is the fourth complaint it has received regarding this particular lift since April this year. Of the remaining three complaints, two were related to lift breakdowns, while one had to do with the lift doors opening too slowly.

Jurong Town Council said lift technicians had done checks following the feedback and found the lift to be functioning normally. It added that all 1,800 lifts it manages have the same key safety features. This includes photo-ray sensors which can detect movement and obstructions. The lifts are serviced monthly.

It is understood that the elderly victim had entered the lift after walking her dog, and that the leash had been caught between the lift doors as the lift travelled upwards.

"The safety edge of the lift door actually requires certain resistance and a hard object to detect, so it will bounce back. For soft items like fabric, there's no resistance, so it will not be able to detect something in between the door. The lift will just operate normally," said Mr Allan Koh, the town council's senior property manager.

Mr Ho Thian Poh, general manager of Jurong Town Council, also said: "Normally we'll focus on lifts which have more than two breakdowns in a month - that same particular lift. So in this case if you take four spread over six months, it is still below that number. But of course, not forgetting even if it's a smaller number we must still look at the severity of the feedback and the fault detected by the lift company.

"In this case, there was no major fault.That's based on what our computer records show. There could be residents who probably encountered once and did not highlight to us. It's possible, we don't rule it out."

Following yesterday's incident, Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin, who is an MP for Marina Parade GRC said in a Facebook post that preventive maintenance of the lifts under the Marine Parade town council's charge has been stepped up.

This is on top of regular checks. He added that engineers have also begun doing checks on all lift sensors within the GRC. CHANNEL NEWSASIA