SINGAPORE - Technical producer Mohammad Yazid Razali was heading home with his family last Thursday (Nov 10) evening when an ordinary lift ride took a tumble for the worse.
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.
"It just dropped on us suddenly and landed on our heads. Everybody was shocked," said Mr Yazid, 36, who was there for a dinner gathering at his parents' and grandfather's home.
While Mr Yazid escaped without injuries, the boy - his youngest child - ended up with a bump on his head. His father was scratched by the metal panel, which was left dangling on what seemed like a wire.
His wife and two older daughters, who were also in the lift at the time, were not hit.
Mr Yazid dialed the emergency number in the lift and also informed the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council, before heading to a nearby 24-hour clinic. The doctor said the injuries were not serious.
But Mr Yazid, who lives in an HDB flat in Woodlands, said: "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."
He hopes something can be done to prevent such incidents from recurring. "It's lucky that I am tall and absorbed a lot of the impact (from the dislodged ceiling)," said Mr Yazid, who stands at 1.84m.
"But 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 is planning to seek compensation for the $128 that his family spent at the clinic.
This episode comes on the back of recent incidents which saw people getting injured in lifts and facade parts falling off Housing Board blocks.
The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) told The Straits Times it was alerted to last week's incident on Friday (Nov 11), and investigations are ongoing to determine the reason for the ceiling's dislodgement.
"When BCA engineers were on site to inspect the lift, they found that the dislodged ceiling panel had already been put back into place," a spokesman said.
She added that the lift contractor has conducted checks on lifts within the vicinity, and that BCA has not received any report on similar incidents.
MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC Zainal Sapari said that the town council is retrieving the CCTV camera footage to find out what happened last week.
"The urgent thing is to look at the cause of it and decide on any necessary action," said Mr Zainal, who is also chairman of Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council.
"We have told the family that we will look into compensation when the investigation is over," he added.
