Red Cross elevator drop: Unanswered questions and last check 20 days ago

A series of questions that require an immediate response to the causes and circumstances under which it was caused to fall to “the ” resulting in the injury of four persons will be asked to give the persons responsible through EDE has been ordered by the Ministry of Health, but also by the prosecutors. Yesterday (9/1/2025) at noon at the hospital announced an alarm, as the elevator cabin leading to surgery was found from the first floor in the basement. Within the elevator were two rescuers, a patient who was being discharged and his escort. Of the above the one who was most seriously injured was one of the rescuers, as he suffered fractures on the ribs. CORVERSE And if the worst was avoided, however there are a number of questions that must be answered and sanctions imposed on any person responsible. Already under a prosecutor’s order EL.AS seeks to capture the last maintenance officer of the company that performed the autopsy, while on the health ministry’s side all procedures have been initiated in order to shed plenty of light on the incident. According to the administration of the hospital, as well as the documents brought to the public by newsit.gr, while the certificate of inspection is valid until 14 June 2025, with the following labelling: “a necessary condition for the validity of this is regular maintenance and periodic inspection of the lift. CORVERSE Any significant conversion concerning the lift must be notified to the body and approved by it.” As regards the legislation governing the maintenance of lifts for their safe operation, this is not the same for all buildings. That’s because the periodicity and frequency of controls depend mainly on the use made in elevators. So according to Article 4 of this law in “hospitals, the number of maintenance is twice a month. ” The information at the disposal of the newsit.gr, the two maintenances made on 2 and 19 December 2024, are signed by the same employee of the company and there is no comment in the comments referring to a problem in the operation of the lift. So the technician approved his safe operation after the audit he performed. Scripts and possible failures But what happened after 20 days after the last check the elevator fell from the first floor to the basement? From this point on, a series of questions will be initiated that experts will be asked to investigate and answer the company’s managers who have undertaken the maintenance of the lift. Breaking the rope and the elevator was found in the vacuum is something that cannot be caused from one day to the next. In the event that this has happened, the wear of the cable could not be overlooked by the technician. And that’s because the wire doesn’t cut right away, but it wears off the chronic friction and then breaks. If now the fall of the elevator is due to its wire rope, then there is no way that it fell off the top of the shaft or from the point connected to the cabin. At the same time it is expected to check whether there was any damage or failure to the pulleys but also to the machinery that operated the 700 kg elevator, which runs a height of 13.2 meters and carries out four stops and was not perceived by the maintainer. At the same time, it cannot be ruled out whether the company should have carried out other maintenance after the last one it had done on December 19, 2024. Although the law refers to two maintenances per month, it is not clear whether they should have a specific calendar distance between them. Thus it is expected to be assessed whether the 20 days before the fall, without a new check on the elevator was sufficient to contribute to the cause of the accident.