1st LD Writethru-News Analysis: Gruesome death underlines China's maintenance strain

The death of a woman in an escalator accident in central China over the weekend has renewed concern over the safety of public facilities.

A video clip, widely shared on the Internet, shows a woman carrying a child fall into a gap as she steps off an escalator at the Anliang shopping mall in Jingzhou city, Hubei Province. Swallowed by the escalator, the woman died after pushing her child to safety. A preliminary investigations showed a metal panel had collapsed.

Poor maintenance, old facilities and lax supervision are to blame for dozens of similar incidents in recent years. In March, an elevator killed two people in a hotel in the eastern city of Qingdao. In the same month, a woman was killed in a Shanghai apartment building in another elevator tragedy.

A growing number of aging elevators and escalators are a safety hazard that needs to be reviewed, said a spokesperson with the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).

Around 5 percent of elevators and escalators inspected during a maintenance campaign earlier this year were found to have problems and a great number of elevators installed since 2003 are now reaching the end of their service life. Of the 111,000 elevators found to be faulty, only 79,000 have been repaired, according to the AQSIQ.

The life span of elevators is around 20 years with good maintenance. In north China's Hebei Province, more than 1,000 elevators over 15 years old remain in use. In south China's Dongguan city, 1,700 or more such elevators remain, according to market consultants yuboinfo.com.

China's Standardization Administration announced on July 20 that from February next year, a new set of standards will identify hazards based on the condition of major components.

Safety regulations on special equipment--machinery such as boilers, furnaces, cableways and escalators--are already in place, but poorly implemented. The rules state that escalators and elevators should be cleaned, lubricated, checked and repaired every 15 days. It also requires operators to employ specific staff to monitor such facilities.

Special equipment has to pass annual security checks by authorities, but one annual check by the government does not guarantee that the equipment will always be safe. Anliang shopping mall, where the mother's tragic death took place, has no staff tending the escalator. There are also no safety warnings for shoppers.

Compounding the issue, responsibility is spread between equipment owners, operators, and maintenance staff, which leads to shifting of the blame and complicates payouts for victims.

"What is most troubling is that it is not clear who is responsible for aging elevators in residential properties," the AQSIQ spokesperson said, "and there is no money allotted for repairs."

China is the world's biggest user and producer of elevators and escalators. By the end of 2014, the country had 3.6 million elevators and escalators in use. With rapid urbanization, the number of elevators and escalators has been increasing by 20 percent every year and the trend is likely to continue. The constant flow of new equipment has helped the accident rate decline and casualties have remained stable since 2003. Of 49 accidents last year, 21 were caused by passenger misuse and eight were ascribed to equipment failure.

Price competition in the maintenance business has inflamed the issue, with cheap, poorly trained staff lowering the quality of service.

The AQSIQ requires a transparent competitive environment for elevator maintenance firms and asks manufactures to provide maintenance after sales. They will also revise the rules on barriers to entry of companies into the elevator industry and promote platforms such as hotlines to deal with emergencies.

The spokesperson also suggested elevator liability insurance be in place to compensate victims. Endi