Accident News Headlines

Department of Buildings Elevator Division Seminar on Elevator Safety In Places Including NY

Harry Vyas, the Director of the Department of Buildings Elevator Division, represented the United States at the International Seminar for Elevator Safety Systems in Seoul, Korea. The international seminar was organized by the Korean Elevator Safety Institute. Elevator safety representatives were invited from the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada and Australia to give presentations about their country's elevator safety systems and code enforcement. In New York City, the Buildings Department accomplishes its high standard of service through different types of inspections and accident investigations. To ensure the integrity of inspections performed, Buildings also implements quality assurance inspections.

Additionally, the accident rate in NYC in comparison with Canada and other parts of the world is substantially low. For example in 2004, the total number of incidents for elevators and escalators in Ontario, Canada was approximately 550 on 43,000 devices. This is in comparison to 146 accidents on NYC’s 62,000 devices in 2004 and 120 accidents in 2005. The seminar highlighted the issue that accident reporting is a major issue in other jurisdictions. It was widely discussed that accidents are not being properly reported to authorities.

For example, in South Korea, it is estimated that approximately 500 accidents occurred within a given timeframe but only 43 were reported. Representatives from around the world attended the International Seminar for Elevator Safety Systems. The New York City Department of Buildings Director of the Elevator Division represented the United States.