SAFETY ON SINGAPORE FLYER

SAFETY ON SINGAPORE FLYER

25.

Dr Ong Seh Hong asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs (a) what are the regulated safety measures to protect riders on the Singapore Flyer against inclement weather; and (b) whether the relevant authority has comprehensively reviewed the design and safety aspects of the structure against all possible calamities especially after the previous incidents.

Mr Wong Kan Seng: The Singapore Flyer is licensed by the Police under the Public Entertainments and Meetings Act. Before the licence is issued, Police requires the Singapore Flyer to be certified by a competent body as having met relevant technical and safety standards. This assessment and certification is done by a Conformity Assessment Body (CAB), comprising foreign technical experts recommended by SPRING Singapore. This approach is similar to the regulatory regimes in Germany and the UK where CAB and third party assessment bodies are used to certify the safety of amusement rides.

In the case of the Singapore Flyer, the CAB based its assessment on a safety standard known as the EN 13814 standard, which is an internationally recognised standard that is widely used in Europe and the US for amusement rides, including ferris wheels. For example, the safety standard for the London Eye was modified from the EN 13814 to conform to British legislation. The EN 13814 standard covers the design and manufacture of the essential components of the Singapore Flyer, as well as the operational safety of the Flyer, including normal and emergency operations, locking devices and braking mechanisms. These are the primary safety measures regulated by the Police.

Specific to safety measures to protect passengers from inclement weather, Singapore Flyer has in place an Early Warning System to monitor the presence of lightning, where passenger boarding will be suspended if lightning discharges within an 8 km – 10 km radius are detected. In addition, lightning rods are also installed on all the passenger capsules to prevent damage by lightning. These measures have helped avert safety incidents at the Flyer due to direct lightning.

In the recent incident on 18th July 2010, preliminary investigations by Singapore Flyer found no evidence of the ride being affected by lightning, contrary to earlier media reports

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that this may be the case. No other services or systems were affected apart from the loss of air-conditioning in the capsules, as a result of a loss of power supply to the air-conditioning system. As the air-conditioning system is separate from the system driving the Flyer's movement, there was no compromise to the safety of the Flyer. It was still able to operate normally despite the loss of air-conditioning, and the passengers on board completed their ride without incident. The management of the Singapore Flyer then made a decision to temporarily stop operations in order to repair the air-conditioning system.

The incident on 18th July 2010 has no relation to the design and safety aspects of the Singapore Flyer. As I have explained earlier, the air-conditioning system runs on an entirely separate system and is an issue of passenger comfort, not public safety. The preliminary investigation findings on the incident have been submitted to CAB, and CAB also verified that the ride remains safe to operate.

I would like to update this House that since the incident on 23rd December 2008 when an electrical fire in the control room caused a five-hour stoppage with passengers still on-board, the Singapore Flyer has reviewed and enhanced the design of the ride to recover from major stoppages. Apart from having an independent backup system which is physically located away from the primary system, the Singapore Flyer has also built in a winching system which can rotate the Flyer manually if both the primary and backup systems malfunction. These measures have been reviewed by the technical experts including the CAB and SPRING Singapore. The Singapore Flyer has also installed emergency supplies such as water and glucose tablets in the capsules for the passengers; and Police and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) have been working closely with the Singapore Flyer in conducting contingency planning and evacuation exercises to ensure that there is effective response in emergency situations. Since the December 2008 incident, a total of six of such exercises have been conducted.

Police, together with SCDF, SPRING Singapore and the Singapore Flyer management, have worked to put in place a robust regime to safeguard the safety of the users of the Flyer. Moving forward, MHA has been working with MND and BCA to review the current regulatory regime for amusement rides in Singapore. The review was initiated with the aim of better harnessing technical expertise found in various Government agencies so that we can continue to ensure public safety even as amusement rides grow in numbers and complexity.

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