【Case Introduction】 On April 29, 2021, the Tianxin District Procuratorate of Changsha City, Hunan Province, in the course of performing its duties, found that the elevators in some residential areas under its jurisdiction had safety hazards such as not maintaining and repairing in accordance with regulations, damaged signs, and elevator alarm buttons could not play a basic role, so it conducted an administrative public interest lawsuit to file a case. After a large number of visits and investigations and evidence collection, the court asked the Changsha Municipal Procuratorate on July 6, 2021 whether it could issue procuratorial recommendations to the relevant administrative departments on elevator safety issues. After investigation and verification, the Changsha Municipal Procuratorate approved the issuance of pre-trial procuratorial recommendations. On January 7, 2022, the Tianxin District Procuratorate sent a pre-litigation procuratorial recommendation to the Tianxin District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, suggesting that the bureau strictly perform its statutory duties, conduct an inventory of the failure to use and maintain elevators in accordance with the requirements in the jurisdiction, punish the offenders, and comprehensively carry out the safety supervision of special equipment in the jurisdiction to eliminate potential safety hazards.

After receiving the procuratorial suggestions, the Tianxin District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau attached great importance to it, but said that there were some objective difficulties, mainly because there were more than 12,000 elevators in Tianxin District, and the special equipment section of the District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau had limited manpower, which was difficult to complete the work within two months required by the procuratorate, and the elevator safety supervision was a dynamic process, not that it could be done once and for all after verification. The procuratorial organs believe that it is indeed necessary to establish a long-term dynamic mechanism to effectively supervise special equipment such as elevators. After communicating with the District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, the procuratorial organs held a roundtable meeting together with the housing department and various streets, clarifying that the housing department should play the role of the property management department, and each street should play the role of territorial jurisdiction, and mobilize the residents of each property and each community to supervise and manage the safety of the elevator. In order to facilitate the supervision of the masses, the housing department and the district market supervision and management bureau published reports and complaints telephones, posted on the cabinet door or escalator of the elevator, encouraging everyone to reflect the problem and feedback effect in a timely manner. After the meeting, the market supervision department also carried out a special inspection of special equipment for the annual protection of special equipment, and carried out special inspections of public gathering places such as shopping malls, hospitals, and stations within its jurisdiction, as well as key equipment such as elevators, boilers, and large amusement facilities. From January to February this year, the market supervision department inspected a total of 75 units and investigated 11 hidden dangers; at the same time, it formulated the inspection plan for the units using special equipment in 2022, issued the "Implementation Plan for the Investigation and Rectification of Hidden Dangers of Special Equipment in Tianxin District", and planned to conduct a comprehensive investigation and rectification of hidden dangers of special equipment in the whole region from March to June.

(Reporter Zhang Yinfeng, correspondent Yu Xi)

【Comment】 In recent years, elevator "cannibalism", rolling people, and falling accidents have occurred repeatedly, which not only seriously affects the people's sense of happiness and security, but also greatly threatens the safety of people's lives and property and harms the public interest. How the procuratorial organs should perform their duties is of reference significance in handling this case.

First, find the cause. Judging from this case, the reason why elevator safety hazards are difficult to eliminate is mainly due to management reasons, administrative supervision departments, maintenance units, property companies and other responsible entities are not clearly positioned, blame each other, resulting in a "gray area" of elevator safety responsibility; on the other hand, the problem of funds, for the huge costs required for elevator overhaul and replacement, there is a difference between the use of property fees or maintenance funds, and there is also the problem that the maintenance fund extraction channels are not smooth. Some old residential areas do not even have property management and maintenance funds, which objectively hinders the progress of elevator overhaul and replacement. On the basis of the analysis and judgment of the clues, the procuratorial organs believe that the elevator safety main responsibility is not in place, the maintenance is in the form, the renovation is not timely, there are major safety hazards, which infringes the social public interest, and the investigation and management of elevator safety hazards in key areas such as old residential areas, apartments, and industrial parks without property management should be strengthened to prevent microaggressions.

Second, highlight the key points. In this case, the procuratorial organs fully communicated with the relevant administrative functional departments on the key points and difficulties of the special governance work of special equipment such as elevator safety in the jurisdiction, how to plug regulatory loopholes, and how to strengthen the "convergence of the two laws" of illegal acts of safe production. All administrative functional departments reached a consensus on strengthening the rectification of elevator safety hazards: First, strengthen communication and connection, cooperate with procuratorial organs to carry out public hearings, public interest litigation pre-litigation consultations, etc., promote traceability governance in the field of elevator safety production, and promote the formation of complementary advantages between administrative law enforcement and procuratorial supervision; second, establish a coordination mechanism for coordination and linkage, rapid response, and efficient disposal, improve and improve mechanisms such as information sharing, clue transfer, and joint law enforcement, enhance the joint force of public welfare protection, and promote "all management" with "I manage" and implement the Supreme Procuratorate. The Eighth Procuratorial Recommendation "to achieve a win-win and win-win situation; the third is to strengthen the publicity of safe production, interpret the law by case, improve the intensity, breadth and depth of publicity and education on production safety, and vigorously create an atmosphere for the whole people to participate in supervision.

Third, extend the effectiveness. By handling the case, the procuratorial organs not only urged the market supervision and management department to take practical measures to ensure the safety of the elevator, but also strengthened the publicity of the knowledge of the safe use of the elevator with the consultation meeting with the housing department and each street, and mobilized the residents of the community, the property and other people from all walks of life to participate in the work of protecting the safety of the elevator, forming a long-term supervision mechanism. In addition, the procuratorial organs take the elevator safety public interest litigation as the entry point, bring fire safety and residential safety into the scope of supervision, timely promote the relevant departments to formulate industry norms, normalize the public interest litigation "look back", and effectively solve problems for the masses.

(Comments: Feng Ping, deputy procurator general of the People's Procuratorate of Tianxin District, Changsha City, Hunan Province)