Maintain, inspect elevators

At Hurudza House in Harare, a lawyer lost his life when a lift malfunctioned, trapping him between the landing and car door before crushing him to death.
In December 1999, when the CABS Millennium Towers building was being constructed in Harare, 15 construction workers, including a father and son, lost their lives when a hoist they were using malfunctioned and fell from the 15th floor. There were no survivors.
In December 2010, at the PTC Pension Fund Building in Gweru, a member of the public fell into an elevator pit during maintenance work and died a few days later.
There is a lack of clarity in many people’s minds about who is responsible for elevator safety.
Is it the owner of the building, the property manager, the caretaker, the tenants, the service company, the designer or the inspector?
The answer is that it is the person or persons owning or leasing the elevator whose name or names appear on the certificate of permission to use the elevator.
The law that regulates the use of elevators in Zimbabwe is the Factories and Works Act Chapter 14:08, as well as the regulations made under that Act, including the Elevator and Escalator Regulations, R.G.N.No.278 of 1976 as amended.
The law prohibits the use of an elevator without permission. The person whose name is on the certificate of permission to use the elevator is termed the user and is responsible for the elevator’s safety.
It is a condition of the permission to use an elevator that the user appoints a competent person or a company which employs such competent persons to carry out prescribed weekly and monthly inspections to ensure that the elevator is safe and working efficiently.
If during the inspection of an elevator plant, any signs of weakness or failure to operate efficiently or deviation from the norm are observed, the competent person and/or the user have to inform the factory inspector in writing and stop the use of the lift, as its condition may be dangerous or is likely to become so.
They also have to enter the details of the deviations in a record book kept for this purpose without delay.
The user should then execute the necessary repairs, with the approval of the factory inspector and in accordance with the regulations, before commissioning or reusing it.
Execution of repairs or modifications to elevator plant, including replacement of main and governor ropes, renewal or replacement of the controller, renewal or replacement of the safeties, brakes or breaking mechanism, car, and counterpoise and guide rails, require the prior approval of the factory inspector.
There are safety precautions that members of the general public should take when using lifts or becoming trapped inside one.
Under-age children should not be allowed to use a lift unaccompanied by an adult.
If trapped inside an elevator, it is important to remain calm. You should press the alarm button and phone the emergency number provided inside the lift.
Do not force the lift doors open or closed or interfere with elevator accessories. Never enter the machine or motor room.
Any failure of a lift to operate efficiently, including poor floor levelling or the existence of unsecured elevator landing doors, should be reported to the building authorities.
Members of the public should avoid using a lift where there are signs warning that maintenance or inspection work is being under-  taken.
Whenever elevator-landing doors are opened during inspection, maintenance or repairs, members of the public should refrain from satisfying their curiosity by looking closely at the elevator or into the lift well. Such curiosity can cost one’s life, as happened in Gweru.
The user or owner of the elevator is expected to subject the elevator to statutory examination and test by the factory inspector annually and in accordance with the regulations.
The user is required, in terms of Section 3 of the Machinery Regulations (RGN No 302 of 1976) as amended, to appoint a responsible person to be in charge of maintaining the elevator plant in good order and repair. This is over and above the appointment of a competent person charged with inspection responsibility.

l Talking Social Security is published weekly by the National Social Security Authority as a public service. There is also now a weekly radio programme, PaMhepo neNSSA/Emoyeni leNSSA, discussing social security issues every Thursday at 6.50 pm on Radio Zimbabwe. Readers can e-mail issues they would like dealt with in this column to [email protected] or text them to 0735 041 278. Those with individual queries should contact their local NSSA office or telephone NSSA on (04) 706517-8 or 706523-5.