A FORENSIC CASE STUDY: Human Factors Issues Involved in a Fall Down an Elevator Shaft

This case study involves a woman (Mrs. V) who was renting a beach property for a vacation with her family. The rental property included a residential elevator that connected the garage to the three different levels of the property. On the second night of the vacation, Mrs. V fell asleep on the first-floor couch. After waking in the early hours of the night, she went to utilize the first-floor restroom. After opening the door, she believed was the restroom, she stepped across the threshold. Unbeknownst to her, she had been able to open the elevator door and fell down the empty shaft. It was determined that a failed locking mechanism allowed her to access the elevator shaft without the car being at the same level. The Human Factors consultants had to address numerous factors including hazard management, warnings, human capabilities navigating in low-level lighting, and the effect of alcohol.

Assessment of Elevator Risks and Code Requirements Associated With Slip, Trip and Fall Hazards

In previous work, the hazards associated with elevator door closures were identified and analyzed. Using the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), incidents associated with door strikes were identified between the years 1990 to 2017. This current effort focuses on elevator slip, trip and fall hazards. The ASME A17.1 Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators requires that elevator systems be equipped with leveling devices to vertically align the car platform sill relative to the hoistway landing sill to attain a predetermined accuracy. Even with the leveling safety requirements, slip, trip and fall incidents for passengers exiting or entering elevators are known to occur. This paper will analyze elevator slip, trip and fall hazards using injury records from the NEISS database from 1990 to 2019. Relevant elevator incidents were extracted from this dataset through manual inspection of the text-based description fields of all elevator-related incident records found in the NEISS dataset from this time period. National projections of elevator incidents were then calculated from this extracted dataset and trended for the entire time period of 1990 through 2019. The age and sex distributions of these national projections were also analyzed. These projections and trends are then discussed in the context of ASME A17.1 requirements intended to mitigate the risks of injuries when entering or exiting an elevator.

Assessment of Elevator Risk and Code Requirements to Address These Hazards

The ASME A17.1 Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators establishes safe practices in the design, construction, installation, operation, testing, inspection, and maintenance of elevators. This Code continues to be updated with new regulations to improve safety for elevator riders. The estimated number of elevators in service in the U.S. is approximately 1.1 million.1 Two of the most common injuries for elevator riders are associated with unexpected door closures and trips and falls when entering or leaving an elevator. A recent study reported that door-related incidents accounted for 40% of the total elevator related injuries [1]. This same study reported that another 40% of the total injuries were associated with trips and falls caused by elevator cars that were not level with the landing. These two hazards result in approximately 80% of the elevator-related injuries occurring at the entrance of the elevator. Other recent studies have concluded that older adults [2] and young children [3] are particularly impacted by these elevator-related hazards. This paper will focus on identifying and analyzing the hazards associated with elevator door closures. In this study, the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is reviewed from 1990 to 2017 to better understand the trends associated with door strikes, the affected body part and the age of those involved in the incidents. This study also explores and discusses the safety mechanisms currently available to address these hazards. An examination of updates to the ASME A17.1 Code along with improvements in door reopening technologies will be presented to guide the discussion.

An Energy-Efficient Elevator Operating System that Considers Sensor Information and Electricity Price Changes in Smart Green Buildings

In modern smart buildings, the energy consumption of a building is monitored every time. Smart buildings are also equipped with sensors that can collect various physical data such as temperature, motion, and light. In this paper, we use smart sensor technologies in the design of an efficient elevator operating system (EOS). Specifically, multiple sensor devices are used together to detect elevator passengers’ behavior before they arrive at the elevator door and press the elevator call button. The detected information is then delivered to EOS through building networks and the scheduling system utilizes this information for the efficient control of the elevator cars. Specifically, when the number of passengers becomes large, EOS increases the number of working elevator cars to reduce the waiting time of passengers. In contrast, when the elevator traffic lessens, EOS reduces the number of working elevator cars in order to save the energy consumption. Experimental results with a wide range of configurations show that our EOS outperforms the conventional elevator scheduling system that does not consider sensor information or electricity price changes.

Perancangan Sistem Deteksi Dini Lift Barang Berbasis Arduino di PT Dharma Electrindo Manufacturing

PT Dharma Electrindo Manufacturing is one of the compant in automotive manufacture. This company has two plants which are in Cikarang and Cirebon, with Cirebon focusing on the manufacturing side. PT Dharma Electrindo Manufacturing Cirebon branch has three floors for production. Thus it is necessary to have a freight elevator to ease production process on second and third floor with support from AGV (Automatic Guided Vehicle) with the market price of Rp 200.000.000 without humans directly controlling it. Several accidents could happen due to unsynchronized elevator door and AGV. In 2017, 15 accidents occurred on the elevator door on the second floor. Because of this, an early detection system has been implemented in the form of a crossbar on the door such that the AGV does not hit the acrelyte-made door which could cause the AGV to fall and caused the company loss about Rp 200.000.000 or the broken elevator door all through 2017 which caused Rp 202.250.000 loss. It is hoped that this crossbar implementation is developed using stabilizer.