A 45-year-old elevator mechanic from Mesquite, Texas, died after falling approximately 20-feet into an open hoistway at the parking garage of 1515 Elm Street, Dallas, Texas, around 8 p.m. Friday, November 1, 2013. The elevator technician, whose name was not yet released by authorities, was apparently servicing equipment in a mechanical room adjacent to the open shaft when he fell. The Dallas Fire Department urban search and rescue team was dispatched to recover the victim, who was declared dead on arrival by the responding paramedics. A spokesperson for the Dallas Police Department said they did not know what caused him to fall, but indicated that it appeared to be an accident, and that Dallas homicide detectives and OSHA were investigating.
Tag Archives: fall
Denver, CO – Broncos fan severely injured after falling from escalator at Sports Authority Field
An adult male was severely injured on August 30, 2013, around 9:30p.m. local time, when he apparently fell from an escalator at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado, the home stadium of the Denver Broncos. The stadium was hosting a pre-season game between the Broncos and the Arizona Cardinals when the incident occurred. Denver police released few details about the man, the extent of his injuries, or whether alcohol may have been a factor. However police did confirm that they were investigating the incident as an accident, and that the victim was conscious and breathing when he was transported to a nearby hospital after suffering serious injuries from his fall. ABC7, The Denver Channel, reported that eyewitnesses stated that the man may have suffered from a medical condition which caused him to lose his balance.
Sources reporting this story include:
- CBS4 Denver – Football Fan Falls From Escalator At Broncos Game
- ABC7, The Denver Channel – Man falls from escalator at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, seriously injured
- ESPN NFL – Fan falls from escalator in Denver
- NFL.com – Fan falls from escalator at Denver Broncos game
- The Denver Post – Man falls from escalator during Broncos game; may be severely hurt
- The Gazette – Fan falls from escalator at Denver Broncos game
New Delhi, Delhi, India – Nine people injured after apartment building falls one floor
Nine people suffered minor injuries around 2:50 p.m. local time, June 18, 2013, when an elevator in an apartment building in New Delhi, Delhi, India apparently “slipped” one floor, falling from the fourth floor before stopping suddenly at the third floor. The victims were all taken to a nearby hospital, where they received first aid and were released. No information was available regarding the cause of the malfunction.
Based on the the description of the incident, it appears that the elevator may have descended uncontrollably, causing the elevator to overspeed downwards, causing the overspeed governor to apply the car safety. Typically, when an elevator exceeds its rated speed, the overspeed governor will first trip electrically, sending a signal to the elevator controller to stop the car. If the controller is unable to stop the car and the car continues to accelerate downward, it will then trip mechanically. When the governor trips mechanically, jaws on the centrifugal governor grab the governor cable. The energy of the descending car then causes the governor cable, which is now fixed, to engage the car’s emergency brakes, which clamp down on the guide rails, stopping the car.
In the United States, the ASME A17.1 “Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators” provides that when the overspeed governor trips mechanically, the car should not decelerate at a rate greater than “1 G”, the rate of normal gravitational acceleration, or 9.8 meters per second-squared. It should be noted that a downward acceleration of “1 G” would cause an elevator rider to experience a relative weight twice their normal weight. That is, a passenger would “weigh” twice their normal weight relative to the elevator floor below their feet, so it is not difficult to understand how a passenger would be thrown around and injured when an elevator stops during a high speed mechanical safety application. However, had the mechanical safety not been provided or malfunctioned, the elevator would have continued to decelerate until it reached terminal velocity and crashed into the pit at the bottom landing, so despite that these passengers suffered minor injuries, they should consider themselves lucky that the safety devices worked as designed, allowing them to escape potentially fatal injuries.
Sources reporting this story locally include:
Tampa, FL – Man suffers fatal fall down elevator hoistway at Tampa International Airport
Chad Wolfe, a 31-year-old auto mechanic from West Newtown, Pennsylvania, was found dead around 3 a.m. on March 15, 2013, after he apparently fell down an elevator hoistway at Tampa International Airport in Tampa, Florida. Initial reports noted that the victim was intoxicated and behaving erratically, including climbing on a tree in the airport lobby, moments before the accident occurred. The medical examiner’s report noted that the victim had an “oil-like substance” on his hands, and that the investigating detective noted that it appeared the victim “forced open [the] elevator door to gain entry into the elevator shaft.”
Initial reports noted that the hoistway door interlock on the elevator had been “compromised” and that it “had been tampered with” but added that there was no indication that the interlock had malfunctioned prior to the incident. The elevator had passed its most recent inspection before the accident.
This case serves as an unfortunate reminder that the general public should never try to access an elevator hoistway for any reason. The hoistway door interlock, like any other mechanical or electronic device, can be damaged by abuse or vandalism, leading to failures, which can result in unfortunate situations like this where a passenger was able to pry the doors open with their bare hands. Hoistway doors should remain fully closed and locked any time the elevator is not present at that landing. An open hoistway should always be treated as an imminently dangerous fatal hazard.
Download the medical examiner’s report, as provided by 10 News WTSP, or watch their video reports, below:
Sources reporting this incident locally include:
- 10 News WTSP – Medical Examiner: Death of Chad Wolfe, man who fell down Tampa International Airport elevator shaft, ruled an accident
- 10 News WTSP – Body found at TIA
- Bay News 9 – Elevator death at Tampa International Airport ruled accident
- ABC Action News – Tampa International Airport elevator shaft death ruled an accident
- Tampa Bay Times – Elevator death at Tampa airport determined to be accidental
- Bay News 9 – Surveillance video released of man who died in TIA elevator shaft
- ABC Action News – Airport elevator accident victim Chad Wolfe laid to rest in his native Pennsylvania on Thursday
Mount Vernon, NY – 11 year-old boy falls down elevator shaft
According to NBC New York, an 11-year old boy fell three floors down an elevator shaft around 12:30pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012. According to police, the victim and other young boys were playing in the building hallway when “the elevator doors unexpectedly opened and one of the boys fell in”. The condition of the boy was not immediately clear, but presumably the boy was hospitalized and sustained serious injury.
Read the full story by NBC New York, published December 11, 2012.
The description of the incident according to police and according to NBC New York indicates that the boy was rescued through the roof of the elevator car. Given that, the elevator doors could not have “unexpectedly opened” in the sense that the doors themselves opened. Rather, based on the description of the accident, involving boys playing in the hallway, it appears that the victim likely struck the door with force, causing the door gibbs to fail, causing the lower retaining door gibbs to break away, thus allowing the bottom of the hoistway door to swing open into the hoistway enough to allow the boy to fall into the open hoistway.
This is similar to the case in which a wheelchair-bound man in Korea crashed his motorized wheelchair into elevator doors, causing the door gibbs to fail, and causing the man to fall into the hoistway. Interestingly, Korea requires that hoistway doors bear a sign with a pictograph that depicts the hazard created by leaning on, or otherwise applying force to, hoistway doors. This appears to be a case in which the hoistway door was forced to bear excessive forces and ultimately failed, exposing a member of the public to the potentially fatal hazards of the hoistway.
Bellevue, WA – 24 year old man dies after three story fall from shopping mall escalator
According to Bellevue Patch, a 24-year-old man died after falling three stories at Lincoln Square shopping center in Bellevue, Washington. A police spokeswoman stated that the man, identified as Joel Bush, attempted to ride the escalator by sitting and balancing on the handrail. The man apparently lost his balance and fell backward into the atrium, falling sixty feet. According to police, alcohol was initially suspected to be a factor but ultimately did not appear to contribute to the man’s death.
Read the full story by Bellevue Patch, published December 30, 2011.
Unfortunately despite that this scenario is completely preventable, it is rather common especially for teens and young adults to attempt to “ride” the escalator handrail, either by sitting on the handrail, or holding onto the handrail from the outside of the balustrade. It is interesting to note that escalator handrails are often shorter than the permanent railings that protect an atrium’s open space.
Bronx, NY – Man moving mattress falls down freight elevator shaft
According to ABC 7 Eyewitness News New York, Joseph Ryan, a 35 year-old man died around 11 p.m. Monday after plunging two stories down a freight elevator shaft in an apartment building located on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The man was moving into a new apartment and was apparently walking backwards and carrying a mattress at the lobby level when the incident occurred. The man fell down to the basement level and suffered injuries that he succumbed to after being transported to nearby St. Barnabas Hospital. Early accounts of the accident described that the door was open but the elevator was not at the floor at the time the incident occurred. Tenants in the building noted that the freight elevator was shut down every night and that only building maintenance workers and security guards had access to the elevator.
Interestingly, the article noted that although the victim was not working at the time, he worked for a private elevator contractor during the day. The New York City Department of Buildings investigated the accident and determined that the victim had apparently used a drop key to open the hoistway door and gain access to the elevator for at least one prior trip on the elevator. The Department of Buildings also issued a violation for an apparently malfunctioning mechanical door interlock on the incident elevator. The Eyewitness News report also noted that the Department of Buildings had received a number of tenant complaints about the elevators prior to the incident including one that noted “no one uses [the elevator because] they are afraid.”
Read the full story by ABC 7 New York, published March 2, 2010, or watch the videos below.
Shiodome, Tokyo, Japan – 45 year-old man suffers fatal fall after leaning against escalator handrail
Satoshi Katayama was killed in April 2009 after he leaned backwards against an escalator handrail which then lifted him off his feet and over the the handrail, dropping him to his death into an open atrium nearly 30 feet high. Surveillance video of the incident depicts the victim briefly leaning against the handrail before being carried over the balustrade and falling to his death. The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Japan’s Consumer Safety Investigation Commission is reviewing the accident as of June 27, 2013, in light of the recently published results of an investigation by the Japanese Ministry of Land. The Land Ministry investigation concluded that safety barriers could have prevented the accident, but noted that the Japanese Building Standards Law did not require their installation.
Sources reporting this story include: