Ten local administrators were hurt when their elevator plunged seven floors in an accident at a Pattaya hotel.
Two of the 10 city and sub-district officials were admitted to the hospital in critical condition following the March 7 at the Pattaya Centre Hotel on Beach Road. The bureaucrats were in Pattaya attending a training session for executives of local governments held by the Local Personnel Development Institution under the Interior Ministry.
The group was riding the elevator from the second to their rooms and stopped on the seventh floor where Somjai Tee-ord from Ban Pa Sub-District in Phitsanulok got off. As he did, the elevator fell, ripping his shirt and injuring his back.
Nine other executives crashed to the ground floor. It took rescuers about 10 minutes to free them.
Somjai said the elevator might have been overloaded. However, no warning buzzer sounded about the lift being over weighted.
The officials decided not to press charges after the hotel management agreed to pay medical bills for those hurt. However, police said they would charge the company with poor maintenance that put others at risk, which carries a fine of up to 10,000 baht.
