81% of E/S Accidents Were Caused By
Passengers, Need Campaign Desperately

National Assembly, Citizen Coalition, Inspection Institutes Cooperated on Multipurpose Facilities
Korea Elevator Safety Technology Institute, Carried out Special Inspection on Vulnerable Elevator

By J.H.Lee / jhlee@liftasia.com

sToday, elevators are transportation for all people in this country, already installed 380,000 units(5th in world) and 25,000 newly installed every year.
But, the accidents related to elevators and escalators have been increased 62% every last 5 years because of increasing of utilization. The main cause is the carelessness of passengers (about 60%). Especially, 153 accidents happened last year and this was 1.6 times more than the year before. Among these, 81% of escalator accidents were caused by the carelessness of passengers.
To settle down leading countries' safety culture and preventing accident, Transportation safety forum of National Assembly, Korea Elevator Safety Technology Institute, Citizen's Coalition for Safety, Mail Economy paper cooperated on this.
Last month 18th, ‘The proclamation of practice for elevator rightly use’ was held in the I-park mall in Young-san with 300 participants from National Assembly, Citizen Coalition, inspection institutes.
In this day, Joo seoung yong, member of national assembly and co-vice chairman of Transportation safety forum of National Assembly announced his will by sad that many victims of the accidents were children and elder persons had been increased day by day, we need technical care for facilities, related law enforcement and upgrade the system by the forum.
Also, Song ji tae, president of Korea Elevator Safety Technology Institute(KESTI), sad at opening “The accidents happened in last year were 108 cases and 88 accidents(81.4%) were caused by the carelessness of passengers” and added “Especially, 64,8% accidents could be avoided by holding handrail, so we need advertisement on this point”.
According to the technical data of 'Cause analysis of accidents by KESTI, the accidents caused by the carelessness of passengers took 62.1%, and especially the rate marked 81% in case of escalator, and more than 69% were happened on children and elder persons.

No holding handrail, take 81.4% of total accidents
Accordingly, in this proclamation, directors from KORAIL, Seoul metro and Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation participated and promised to join the campaign. Beginning from Yong-san, they propagate it to Seoul, Suwon, Daejon, Dong-dae gu, Busan and Kwang-ju station.
Especially, KESTI plan to enforce daily check and advertise the campaign with KORAIL, Seoul metro and Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation for passengers. And, also they plan to do special inspection for the elevators need to check in July to August. From September to the end of this year, with the assistance of education department of city·province office, KESTI plan to inspect dumb-waiters which are on the list of non-conformance.
Also, they announced to carry out 3 without(No accident, No complaint, No fault) 100days campaign to provide best condition for elevator passengers.
On the other hands, KESTI plan to carry out the education program on 600,000 children in Kindergartens and elementary schools and for elder person with the related institutes' cooperation.