Elevator Failures VS Accidents

Elevator “Failures” are not “Accidents” and Vice-Versa.

It is a common practice to term elevator accidents as elevator failures, but technically, both are quite different. Complaints, like elevator buttons not working, elevators not stopping at desired floors, doors not opening, elevators stopping off-level, sudden stopping, and rope slippage are all failures that can be termed as elevator components/systems failures.

If we go into further detail, it becomes clear that the failure of any such part can be assigned either to design, quality, assembly, or a setting /maintenance problem.

On the other hand, accidents can be the outcome of component failure or, in general terms, referred to as technical failures.

Take elevator free fall, for example. Technically speaking, free fall is a failure of an elevator system. There can be four reasons for this:

1. All rope breakage
2. Rope slippage
3. Motor speed control failure
4. Brake failure

All of these are termed as technical failures. The reasons behind the failures can be poor maintenance, incorrect setting, wrong design, poor quality of material, or wrong specifications. All these are technical failures. When there is damage to the elevator or a loss to the passenger, due to any of the above failures, we term it as an accident.

Let us analyze one more case. Consider the opening of a lift landing door when the lift cabin is not there. This can be the result of component or control failure, which can be further assigned to design, material, assembly, or maintenance. But, when anyone opens the door and falls into the shaft, we term it as an accident.

The recent death of a businessman in Mumbai who fell into an elevator pit is a clear example of technical failure first and personal negligence thereafter. We do not know the exact cause of the failure, as the investigation report is not publicly available.

We need to answer a few questions before zeroing in on the reason.

1. How can a landing door be opened in the absence of the elevator cabin on that floor?
2. Can we term it as a lock failure?
3. If yes, was the lock setting wrong?
4. Was its contact bypassed?
5. Was the door panel not closing properly?
6. Can it not be termed as service negligence?

A detailed investigation can show the exact cause of failure and help in completing corrective measures.

Maximum deaths in elevator accidents are reported from door failures. We will now go into further detail to find out the root cause of such failures.

Door and lock parts that may fail include:

• Door spring tension
• Door lock contact
• Door relay contact
• Door rope breakage
• Door bottom gibs worn out or broken

We need to analyze each failure, find the actual cause, and work out a foolproof permanent solution to avoid failure and accident. In addition, all these components need to be checked regularly and properly to avoid failure, because of any of these reasons. Only then can we prevent technical failures and accidents.

I ask everyone to share the corrective measures taken by them with all other elevator industry members and work jointly toward zero deaths as a result of elevator accidents brought on by failure.

SEEP can be a good platform for sharing and working together in this respect.