WORKERS at the gas company construction site in North Point said they frequently flouted the regulations and ignored a sign which said only eight people at a time should ride in the passenger hoist.
Every morning, workers at the site of the new operations building of the Hongkong and China Gas Company fought among each other to cram into the tiny elevator to get to their workplace.
Known as the ''workers' cage'', the elevator was the sole access to the 25-storey building, where hundreds of construction workers and mechanics earned their living.
One worker, who refused to be named, said he faced the crush every day when he arrived at work.
''It is really bad - all of us just tried as hard as we could to get in the elevator,'' he recalled.
After a few years in the construction industry, he said the general working environment had made him put aside the question of safety.