TheMinato Ward 2006 elevator accidentwas an incident in June 2006 which shookJapanesepublic confidence in the safety ofelevatorsaround the country. In June 2006, inMinato, Tokyo, a 16-year old high school student was killed by an elevator maintained by SEC Elevator Co Ltd. He was backing out of it with his bicycle when the elevator suddenly rose with the doors still open, causing asphyxiation. Investigations began related to this fatality.1In the process of this investigation, the safety of elevators in Japan came under question, with media attention focused on the manufacturer, Swiss based elevator company theSchindler Group. That elevators are not infallible came as a surprise to many people. The Japan Elevator Association disclosed that 9,200 entrapments happened in Japan in 2004 in elevators of the big five Japanese elevator manufacturers (Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi, Toshiba, Nippon OTIS, and Fujitec). In addition, many elevators were reported to have suddenly stopped between floors, or had the doors fail to open when arriving at a floor, or made strange noises. Of the 8,800 Schindler elevators installed in Japan, 85 have trapped people.2Following the incident, the Minato Ward public housing corporation replaced all five Schindler elevators in the condominium with elevators from another manufacturer.Elevator maintenance had been carried out by a Japanese maintenance company, and not by Schindler, since 2005. The elevators in question were maintained by Japan Elevator Corporation in 2005, and by SEC Elevator from 2006 until the time of the accident. The International Herald Tribune and Asahi Shimbun reported on June 14 that Loose bolts and worn brake pads, evidence of poor maintenance, likely played a central role in the elevator accident. In the article it can also be read that it is the responsibility of the maintenance company to ensure that such bolts are tightly fastened.Schindler pointed out that the maintenance of the elevator was carried out by a non-affiliated maintenance company and that the company does not have an indication of a product design mistake so far. However, Tokyo Metropolitan Police finally concluded that both Schindler and maintenance company are responsible for the accident. Six people are reported to be prosecuted.3Schindler, Minato Ward public housing corporation, and the Japanese elevator maintenance company SEC were publicly criticized for showing an evasive attitude toward the Japanese police and the condominiums inhabitants.4They did not respond to or attend any public meetings for the first 8 days, although they claimed to have fully supported all investigation attempts. June 14, 2006. The International Herald Tribune (Herald Asahi) reports that Loose bolts and worn brake pads, evidence of poor maintenance, likely played a central role in the elevator accident. . It is the responsibility of the maintenance company to ensure that such bolts are tightly fastened. June 14, 2006. Investigations reveal 6 cases in Japan where the elevator moved with the doors still open.5Manufactured between 1997-1998, they used the same circuit board (now being investigated by Schindler) model. In the Chiba case, Schindler is still maintaining the elevator in question. Questions about why some elevators came with the defect and why some took 7 years to show the defects have been raised, but Schindler Elevator KKs head Ken Smith claims that it might be the deteriorating PCB. It is worth noting that the Fanling, Hong Kong case occurred on an elevator installed in 1997 also（当时记得确实是有一个also这个词，因为这样的电梯事件，无独有偶） June 15, 2006. According to the Mainichi Newspaper, an employee of SEC testified to the police that he did not know how to adjust the brake of the fatal elevator and that he just left it as it was. June 16, 2006. Schindler has admitted that a software problem caused the problem with several elevators in Japan,6Elevators manufactured between 1991-93 are affected, although Schindler claims that this faulty code was not a material safety risk. The problem is that the elevator doors could still reverse 0.5s after the elevator starts moving, and when the door reverses when the elevator moves, the elevator is not halted. Schindler will upgrade the software code for the affected elevators by the end of June 17. However, this was not a factor in the Minato Ward accident which is still under investigation. On NHK 9 OClock News reports Schindler K.K. representative said that the programming error was detected and fixed for a number of elevators of that model some time ago but that it may be that service workers doing maintenance on these once code corrected elevators could have unwittingly gone and reprogrammed them again with the old codes, thus leading to the malfunctions. Initially, 9 elevators were identified to have the problem, but the list later expanded to 52. June 17, 2006. NHK reports that a problem in the brake has been found in