Third of all elevators in Turkey dangerous: Ministry report

Erdinç Çelikkan - ANKARA

Cihan Photo

One third of all elevators in Turkey are not safe, according to a new report prepared by the Science, Industry and Technology Ministry.

Over the course of 2015 the ministry inspected a total 3,064 elevators around the country and found that 1,012 were not fit for service. 

The inspection came as part of the ministry’s broader study of 60,513 different industrial machines in 2015. Of these, 6,312 were found unsuitable for use and fines amounting to a total of 6.1 million Turkish Liras were given to their owners.

With a third deemed not fit for service, elevators were the most dangerous machines inspected by the ministry in the 2015 study. However, this marked a slight improvement on the 2014 study, when the ministry found 45 percent of all inspected elevators to be faulty.

Overall, fines worth 4.1 million liras were handed out to the owners of faulty elevators in 2015. 

Turkey has seen a number of deadly elevator accidents in recent years.

On Feb. 1, three construction workers were killed when a freight lift crashed to the ground at the construction site of a 32-story residence in Istanbul’s Bahçeşehir neighborhood.

The freight lift crashed to the ground from the 23rd floor with workers Yasin Bakır, Şükrü Yaşar and Osman Yardımcı inside.

On Sept. 2014, 10 workers were killed at a construction site in central Istanbul when an elevator carrying them suddenly plunged to the ground from the 32th floor.

The accident occurred at the construction site of the Torunlar Center, which was being built on the former site of Galatasaray’s Ali Sami Yen Stadium in the Şişli district’s Mecidiyeköy neighborhood.

The elevator malfunctioned while the workers were trying to leave the construction site after the completion of their shift.