Parts of lift ceiling fell and injured family at Pasir Ris Drive 4

Part of the lift’s ceiling at Block 480, Pasir Ris Drive 4, fell and hit Mr Yazid, his 63-year-old father and his two-year-old son when they were in the lift on their way back home last Thursday (10 November) at around 10pm .

According to the report by Straits Time, the boy, Mr Yazid’s youngest child, had a bump on his head and Mr Yazid’s father was scratched by the metal panel, which was left dangling on what seemed like a wire. While, fortunately, Mr Yazid, his wife, and his two older daughters did not sustain any injuries.

Mr Yazid said, “It just dropped on us suddenly and landed on our heads. Everybody was shocked.”

He immediately called the emergency number listed in the lift and informed the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council about the incident. Then, he rushed to the nearby 24-hour clinic.

The doctor told the family that the injuries were not serious. However, he felt furious that such incident could have happened, saying, “I am angry. What kind of lift is this? My son cried loudly and had nightmares after. Now he’s traumatised and afraid to enter lifts.”

Mr Yazid who is 1.84m tall said, “It’s lucky that I am tall and absorbed a lot of the impact (from the dislodged ceiling).”

Hoping that such incident never have to happen again, he said that something should be done. “My grandfather and parents use the two lifts in the block every day. There are also quite a number of elderly and kids who live there. I am worried that something might happen to them,” he said.

He spent $128 at the clinic and is planning to seek compensation.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) told The Straits Times it was alerted to last week’s incident on Friday (11 November) saying, “When BCA engineers were on site to inspect the lift, they found that the dislodged ceiling panel had already been put back into place.”

She also said that the lift contractor has conducted checks on lifts within the vicinity and that it has not received any report on similar incidents.

She stated that investigations are ongoing to determine the reason for the ceiling’s dislodgement.

MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC Zainal Sapari said, “The urgent thing is to look at the cause of it and decide on any necessary action.”

He also said that the Government has told the family that it will look into compensation when the investigation is over.

Currently, the town council is retrieving the CCTV camera footage to find out what happened last week.

A few other incidents occurred in Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council in the past few months. One of Facebook users, Ben Tng, posted a video on his page of a lift that still operated with its door half closed.

Another terrible accident occurred when a 77-year-old wheelchair bound man passed away when his wheelchair fell backwards and cracked his skull. He was about to got off one of the lift at Block 247 Pasir Ris Street 21. The lift was misaligned by 25cm above the ground when it opened at the ground floor.