They create a measure of mandatory revision of the elevators in Cali, after the recent accidents

On Wednesday, the Cali Council approved during the second debate the project which imposes on buildings with lifts the obligation to carry out a periodic review of the systems in order to avoid accidents.

The measure also covers real estate with electric doors and escalators and occurs after several accidents with lifts in recent months; the most serious ones caused the death of two people and serious injuries to four other people in the courthouse.

The project's advisers, Diego Sardi de Lima and Juan Carlos Olaya Ciro, described the initiative as a project "that will save lives and serve as an example for other cities in the country, who will not accept it. still not this measure. "

"We must recognize the joint work of the Board and the Administration in supporting this project, especially the Volunteer Fire Department of Cali for its ongoing contribution to the construction of the final document made with the support of Council officials. We hope this project will save lives and avoid risky situations for the community of Cali, "said Sardi de Lima.

The project review and compliance work, once approved by Mayor Maurice Armitage, will be responsible for the Secretariats of Risk Management and Security.

Between 2002 and 2018, the Volunteer Fire Department of Cali participated in 211 emergencies generated by people trapped in lifts and the like (escalators).

Read also: "The new rules to avoid accidents with lifts in Cali".

In the case of the courthouse, where elevator 3 of tower B was stalled from the sixth floor to the basement, with several people on board, it was said that the causes would be related to technical problems, that could be resolved quickly. .

The elevators were installed between 2012 and 2013 as part of the new structure of the judicial complex and should have been subject to different modifications because the cabinets, made in China, did not correspond to the shortcomings intended to receive them. .

The denunciation of the changes to the equipment was made by one of the people hired at the time to install the nine elevators of the palace. She contacted El País to inform her that, during this process, Chinese-made equipment had been provided. to a series of modifications, which have changed its originality.

The man, who is protected by a security identity, said the changes were made because the cabins were larger or smaller than the holes in which the new equipment was to be integrated.

A post-accident report prepared by the company Parametrizado Ingenieros S.A.S and communicated by the National Association of officials and employees of the judiciary, Asonal, establishes that the six elevators of the courthouse do not comply with the technical standard.

"Because of the multiple results found in each of these devices clbadified as very serious, severe and minor, which means that they are not suitable for normal operation because they put the lives of users of these devices at risk imminent ", the report known by Asonal.