Hi all,
The following short video portrays the typical biased reporting by TV journalism of the horrible accident in the Village. It is being placed here for one reason.
It is highly likely that the Bureau of Elevator Safety, a part of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Tallahassee will vigorously "crack down" on Century Village. I opine this because they were not treated at all well in this report.
All High-Rise Associations should take notice, if their elevator is delinquent and take all measures to cure any defect and delinquency. At least, you may be assessed a fine of $1.000.00 at worst you may experience some catastrophic variant of what happened at Dover B.
If you reside in a high-Rise Association and do not know if your elevator is delinquent please go to the following site:
https://www.myfloridalicense.com/wl11.asp
Simply follow instructions and enter either your elevator License number or the name of your Association and you will see if you are current.
Please take the time to see that your machine is inspected and compliant with current code.
In the spirit of full disclosure, it must be noted that my building; Greenbrier C, is in fact, delinquent. Why you may ask? The Greenbrier C elevator is 9 months old, having been fully remodeled. We have had two inspections since the new machine was declared operational. We have submitted our violation free inspection report and the required fee to the Bureau of Elevator Safety. Despite this, no Certificate has been received.
This may reflect on the woeful underfunding of the Division, or other factors, as yet unknown. Thus it should be noted, that sometimes, responsibility is difficult to assign.
Dave Israel
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
CENTURY VILLAGE ELEVATOR ACCIDENT
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6 comments:
The reporting was harsh on the inspectors. What would the normal course of events be? Fail inspection. Taken out of service. Repaired, Reinspected? I am guessing.
This elevator was being serviced. Is the out-of-date inspection certificate visible in the elevator?
Hi Elaine,
Inspection is required once per year and the Certificate of Operation (CO) expires on August 1 each year.
All violations must be cured and then the Private firm that does the inspection will re-inspect, upon being informed by the Association that repairs have been made.
The Inspector then FAXes the clean inspection report to The Bureau of Elevator Safety.
In due course the CO is mailed to the Association.
The elevator would not be taken out of service unless the inspection revealed a very serious violation, bearing on safety to the public.
Dave Israel
Hi Elaine,
PS: Yes, the CO must be displayed in the elevator car, by law.
Dave Israel
Thanks Dave. This was a horrible accident that many people e-mailed me about.
For the record, this elevator failed an inspection in 2008. Century Village Dover Association then contracted with the elevator company to bring the elevator up to code via a modernization. The worker that was killed was in the process of performing this modernization when the gate valve he was closing (in the pit) broke apart causing the hydraulic fluid that holds the elevator in place to escape the system. He tried to jump out of the pit, but the elevator came down faster than he anticipated it would. The end result is obvious. Century Village has done nothing wrong here. In fact, they did everything right. They failed an inspection and contracted a service company to modernize the elevators in order to bring them into compliance.
The way the media is trying to vilify the State AND Century Village is despicable. Instead, they should just be calling this what it is; a very unfortunate tragedy.
An OSHA investigation will determine whether proper safety measures were taken by the mechanic,and review the safety standards and protocol of the company.
Lowering the elevator onto 8 foot safety jacks placed in each corner of the shaft is the only way I'd ever work under an elevator.
I think that the reporting was irresponsible, innacurate, and sensationalized. 'Century Village' does not oversee any Association's maintenance and repair responsibilities!
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