Elevators are such an integral part of our daily lives that we rarely consider them or think twice about stepping inside and letting the doors close behind us. Elevators have existed since early Greek and Roman history as man-powered hoist and pulley systems, but have advanced along with technology to the electric elevators we know and depend on today. But how safe are elevators? We’ve all seen elevator disasters depicted in Hollywood movies, but how many elevator accidents actually occur, and what types of accidents and personal injuries happen on elevators?
The Truth About Elevator Accidents
Thriller movies often show an elevator plunging down a long shaft in a freefall, but that type of elevator accident hasn’t happened since 1932 when a cable-operated elevator fell down a shaft in Brazil. Since then, elevators have backup cables, emergency braking systems, and shaft stoppers that don’t allow an elevator to fall down the shaft. However, this doesn’t mean that elevator accidents don’t occur, only that they don’t happen the way they do in movies.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 17,000 people suffer elevator-related injuries in the U.S. each year.
Surprising Statistics on Elevator Accidents
Both passengers and workers are at risk of experiencing accidents while riding or working on or near elevators. Most elevator injuries do not occur from falling elevators but from passenger falls inside the elevator due to sudden drops or rises, elevator door accidents due to faulty rebound devices and sensor failures, and gaps between floors when an elevator mislevels. Accidents also occur to maintenance workers repairing elevators and elevator shafts. The following elevator accident statistics indicate the scope of the problem:
- Around 900,000 elevators are operating in the U.S., making about 18 billion trips per year
- Around 30 people die in the U.S. each year due to elevator accidents, and over 17,000 suffer injuries
- About half of elevator accident deaths and injuries occur to workers installing or maintaining elevators and shafts
- Half of elevator worker deaths were due to falling into elevator shafts
- Many serious elevator accident injuries occur as “caught-between” accidents when passengers or workers are caught, trapped, or pulled between the moving parts of an elevator or between gaps
- “Struck-by’’ elevator accidents also occur to workers hit by a descending elevator while working in a shaft
- Elevator installers and repair workers have the sixth-highest workplace death rate in the construction and repair trades, with an average death rate of just over 29 deaths per 100,000 full-time workers
- Ten deaths in a 2006 study occurred to untrained building maintenance workers attempting to unjam stalled elevators
- During the same study, three elevator worker deaths were electrocutions
- An eleven-year study revealed 68 elevator passenger deaths in the U.S. or an average of 6 passenger deaths per year
- Children are the most common elevator passengers to suffer injuries
- There were 117,100 recalled elevators in 2022 due to child entrapment hazards
Around 2,000 deaths per year occur in accidents on stairs, compared to 30 elevator accident deaths.
Who Is Responsible For Elevator Hazards?
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, they are making progress in holding manufacturers accountable for elevator hazards, but determining liability for an elevator accident injury isn’t always that simple. Depending on how the injury occurred and who it happened to, the injury victim could recover compensation through a defective product claim, an inadequate maintenance claim against a property owner, or a workplace injury claim. Calling and collaborating with a Kansas City personal injury lawyer can help guide victims through the legal process and receive compensation faster.