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May 16, 2008 10:02 am US/Central
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State Has No Way To Track Elevator Inspections
Harris Methodist Elevator Injury Story Leads I-Team To Find Malfunction In Compliance Statewide
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ―
Richard Fife says he never saw it coming.
The Burleson resident says an elevator door at Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth slammed into his electric scooter, pinning him in the elevator. Fife says the force of the doors tore some of the skin off of his arm.
"It hit my scooter with me on it and it slid me all the way to the wall."
Fife says he told the hospital about the elevator and after he went to the hospital's emergency room for treatment, he says they sent him a bill, for $240. He says no one from the hospital shut down the elevator.
According to state records, since 2006, 15 people claimed they were injured in Harris' elevators - their hands, head, backs or shoulders, all cut or bruised from the elevator door.
In nearly every case -- including the elevator door that closed on Fife -- a follow-up inspection found the elevator operated normally.
Lawrence Taylor, the chief elevator inspector for Texas, explains "hospital elevators are notorious for getting abused."
He says "carts, X-ray machines bang into them, making it more difficult for them to function as they are intended."
Even with elevator door detectors that should prevent an elevator door from closing on a person, it appears there's a good chance someone will get hit anyway, experts agree.
Despite the danger of getting injured, the state has serious problems ensuring elevators are in compliance because the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has no database to ensure the thousands of elevators are annually inspected.
Owners are on the honor system.
It's been that way since 2005 -- and that includes the reporting of accidents.
The state doesn't track accidents because the only ones that need to be reported are the serious ones - like fatal ones.
Toshi Nikaidoh - a 35-year-old medical student and son of Dallas pediatric heart surgeon Hisashi Nikaidoh, was decapitated when an elevator at a Houston hospital malfunctioned.
Dr. Nikaidoh keeps his son's books and ashes in a special room and feels the accident was preventable.
"If all these procedures were followed ... and the safety mechanisms were in place, it would not have happened."
Taylor admits when it comes to the competence of elevator inspectors in the state "there is no way that given any number of people that there isn't some incompetence in there somewhere."
With little state oversight, some inspections can slip thru the cracks.
CBS 11 re-visited the Fort Worth hospital and the elevator that injured Fife. When crews asked Harris Methodist officials to see if the equipment passed its last annual inspection, they shuffled through papers, but were unable to find the inspection date.
CBS 11 called the state and learned the inspection was done six weeks late.
In a statement, Harris Methodist officials say they promptly inspected the elevator after Fife's incident but found no malfunction. It dropped the $240 charge for Fife's injuries and is reimbursing him for medical expenses. (Read the full statement here.)
The hospital now also reports every elevator incident to the state, more than is required by law.
State records show 99.3 percent of Texas elevator inspectors are private individuals; the only state employed inspector is the chief.
The state's new computer system that will keep track of inspections goes on line in the late summer.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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