Elevator company ThyssenKrupp fined $500K for violating Ontario safety rules
The Canadian Press
By Colin Perkel
31 October 2017
TORONTO – One of the country’s pre-eminent elevator companies has been
fined $500,000 for five violations of Ontario’s safety rules.
ThyssenKrupp had pleaded guilty to the offences in Ontario court under the Technical Standards and Safety Act.
According to Ontario’s safety regulator, the company failed to perform
mandatory maintenance and tests at a condominium in Mississauga, Ont.
The company also allowed an unsafe elevator to operate at another condo in east-end Toronto, according to the regulator.
In January, ThyssenKrupp was fined $375,000 for a potentially fatal breach of safety laws in which a man was injured.
Roger Neate, with the Technical Standards and Safety Authority, says
the fines send a strong signal to elevator maintenance contractors that
safety laws must be respected.
“A clear message was sent … to both ThyssenKrupp and the entire elevator industry,” Neate said in a statement.
According to the regulator, ThyssenKrupp failed to perform annual
elevator tests at the Mississauga condo by their prescribed date.
Inspectors found the tests were about two months late in 2015. Other
tests, required every five years, were also overdue by about three
months.
Inspectors began looking into the situation in Toronto in 2015 after a
dangerous incident. The situation involved a passenger jumping from an
elevator that was moving with its doors open, the authority said.
ThyssenKrupp was convicted of putting an elevator that poses an
immediate safety hazard back into service before determining the cause
of the problem, and of permitting the operation of an unsafe elevating
device.
“The court’s verdict says it loud and clear: ThyssenKrupp and the
elevator industry will be held accountable when they fail to follow the
law and complete required safety tests, maintenance and procedures,”
Neate said.
In a recent industry report, ThyssenKrupp and Canada’s other major
elevator companies complained bitterly about Ontario’s safety
authority, accusing it of imposing stifling regulations. The report
also denied the companies have any responsibility for breakdowns,
delayed repairs, soaring entrapment numbers, or rising injury rates.
An in-depth investigation by The Canadian Press last year found soaring
numbers of calls to firefighters to free people trapped in elevators,
reports of frequent and lengthy outages, and harried technicians who
have little time or financial incentive to do preventative maintenance.
The safety authority has reported elevator incidents have risen
significantly since 2011 and serious injuries are up eight per cent
annually.
A private member’s bill, currently before the Ontario legislature, aims
to improve elevator reliability by imposing time limits on returning
devices to service. The industry report warned the legislation, if
passed, would have dire consequences, such as leading to higher costs
that could lead to tenants being evicted from their homes.
The report by the National Elevator and Escalator Association –
dominated by multinational giants Kone, Otis, Schindler and
ThyssenKrupp – blamed any problems on factors that include building
owners who can’t or won’t maintain elevators and who don’t keep unhappy
users in the loop; voltage fluctuations that cause elevator shutdowns;
and traffic congestion and parking issues in Toronto that hamper timely
service calls.
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