The Japanese government said on November 2, 2012, that it would carry out the inspections of thousands of elevators across the nation. The units made by Swiss company Schindler will be inspected in more detail, after a hotel worker was crushed to death by one of their elevators.
Even on October 31, 2012, a 63 year old woman died as she was trapped between the floor of the elevator and the top door frame at a hotel in Kanazawa in the Ishikawa Prefecture. According to investigators, the elevator was moving even though the doors were open and the woman had tripped over the rising floor as she was trying to enter the lift.
The incident has been highlighted by the Japanese media, as this tragedy has occurred six years after a 16 year old boy was killed in an elevator manufactured by the same firm. In a news conference, Yuichiro Hata, the transport minister assured that all 5,500 elevators made by the Swiss company Schindler will be inspected.
Hata said, “We will make emergency checks of all the Schindler elevators on the basis of investigations into the cause of the accident”. The elevator manufacturing company said that it is cooperating with the police probe in the incident.
