Short bolt likely to blame for door collapse

A bolt which was found to be shorter than normal is likely to blame for the collapse of door on to a 7-year-old boy at the Grand Mercure Shanghai Hongqiao hotel in Changning District, work safety officials told TV news.

The boy was attending an event in the hotel’s conference hall last Saturday when the door suddenly fell and hit him. He was taken to hospital and is now in a stable condition.

Police, firefighters and work safety officials were at the scene yesterday, according to TV news.

“A bolt on the door frame of the fallen door was obviously shorter than others,” said Gao Jun, vice director of Changning Work Safety Commission Office. “We need further checks to find out why it was shorter.”

The hotel’s Song Li said the conference hall would not be used until the cause of the accident had been established. 

It was the second such incident to hit the headlines this month. On December 8, a 6-year-old girl was killed when a dressing room mirror in a shop at the Feizhou International Building in Xuhui District collapsed.

The two incidents revealed a lack of safety awareness, safety checks and safety education, according to a statement issued by the city work safety commission office yesterday.

The office has called for inspections at hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, stadiums, entertainment venues, schools and public spaces across the city.

Inspections should start before the end of this year as venues will be crowded during the holidays with many temporary structures, which pose increased safety hazards.

The notice said everyone should take part in the safety checks — authorities, volunteers, landlords and social groups. From March next year, authorities should make safety checks part of their routine work.

Some shopping malls and hotels have already begun.

At the Shanghai New World Department Store, 1,500 doors in the mall will be checked and repaired by the end of the year. 

All mirrors on the second floor have been fixed to the walls with glue and screws, TV news reported.