A 77-year-old man reportedly fell on his head while reversing out of a lift on his mobility scooter on Sunday morning and died 16 hours later.
The floor of the lift was allegedly 20cm above the ground when Lim Hang Chiang exited backwards on his scooter, Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News reported yesterday.
The incident happened at Block 247, Pasir Ris Street 21, at about 10.20am.
Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao said in a report yesterday that there were two other passengers in the lift when the accident happened.
One of them, who gave his name as Ashvin, said they were at the back of the lift when the door opened at the ground floor. Mr Lim reversed out and fell off his device.
“We were shocked and found out only when we stepped out that the lift was not level with the ground but you couldn’t tell from the inside,” said Mr Ashvin.
Mr Lim’s daughter-in-law, Wang Ying, a casino employee, told Shin Min that he had gone downstairs for breakfast when the incident happened.
“When I went downstairs, neighbours had helped him to one side and pulled the mobility scooter out.
“He said that the back of his head hurt but… it was not bleeding,” she added.
He was sent to Changi General Hospital, where doctors detected bleeding from his brain. He died at about 2.20am yesterday.
Mr Lim’s son, Lim Keng Swee, a 45-year-old safety assessor, told Shin Min that his father would have turned 78 this Friday. His father used a mobility scooter as he had had a stroke.
A resident in the area who gave her name as Ms Liang, a 47-year-old administrator, told Shin Min that she and her mother had seen the same malfunction in the lift twice before.
The most recent incident was within a month, and they had sent feedback to the town council.
A spokesman for Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council told My Paper yesterday that a lift rescue team was “immediately sent on-site to suspend lift operations until the cause of the incident could be established”.
The lift company, Fujitec, also deployed its technician.
She added that two town council officers accompanied Mr Lim and his family members to the hospital.
The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) met the town council and lift contractor on site yesterday morning.
The town council has been issued with a notice to suspend the lift operation and appoint an authorised examiner to conduct an investigation of the incident.
myp@sph.com.sg
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