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在线翻译:
szdaily -> News
Decrepit elevators a hidden danger
     2016-February-25  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

    RIDING rickety old elevators is a daily thrill for some in Shenzhen — but fixing the outdated and dangerous elevators is also something the city needs to do, according to reports from a Chinese newspaper.

    “I feel like I can’t breath when I get trapped in the elevator,” said a Youyi Building resident surnamed Zhou. Zhou has been trapped in the elevator in the Youyi building several times over his 20 years living there.

    “I’m not a young man anymore and suffer from heart disease as well as high blood pressure,” Zhou said, explaining that when trapped he rings the alarm bell and waits for help.

    The 14 elevators at the seven Youyi Buildings in Luohu District have been in service for almost 34 years, making them almost as old as Shenzhen itself. Many residents living in the seven buildings in the residential area have been trapped in them.

    A boy surnamed Chen said that he also “escaped” from an elevator once. “The door only opened a little bit, and I had to squeeze my body through the door,” said Chen.

    Many complain about the elevators, but not everyone wants them replaced because of the costs involved.

    To prevent accidents from happening, several deputies from the Municipal People’s Congress and the general manager from the property management center, Chen Jiafa, proposed a government subsidy for replacement work.

    The government agreed to shoulder 30 percent of the cost to replace all the elevators and the elevator manufacturers would give a 30 percent discount. The property owners only needed to pay 40 percent of the entire fee.

    Since nearly 90 percent of the residents in the buildings rent, and some property owners don’t even live in China, only a few households agreed to pay for the new elevators.

    Wang Qinggen, deputy director of the city’s Special Equipment Industry Association, said many old elevators in Shenzhen did not meet safety standards and it’s expensive to maintain them.

    The property management center started to collect maintenance fees from some owners since March 2015.

    Each household was asked to pay a fee around 680-1,140 yuan (US$104-174) based on size of their apartment.

    Four elevators at four residential buildings were replaced, but the other 10 old elevators remain.

    The property management center said it can’t afford to replace all of the elevators.

    “The property management fee has remained the same for 17 years and we can’t afford the huge investment,” said an employee at the center.

    In Shenzhen, 20 percent of the 132,000 elevators in the city have been used for more than 15 years and all of them need to be replaced.

    “No fatal accident happened in Shenzhen in 2015 and the safety of elevators is controllable in general,” said Cao Bigang.

    Cao is the deputy director of safety inspection office of special equipment.

    However, according to Cao, they receive loads of complaints about elevators.

    Cao said that the office had received 1,561 complaints last year.

    Among them, 1,544 complaints were about elevator problems such as sudden drops, strange noises and people being trapped.

    In 2013 a woman was decapitated when an elevator plunged about 4 meters in Luohu. Her head was outside of the elevator and her body inside when the elevator fell.

    (Zhang Qian)

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