Elevators if not installed and maintained properly can be an avenue for disaster and it is for this reason that an elevator mechanic Toronto are increasingly becoming popular. There are numerous of reported accidents in elevator shafts and those mentioned above are very tragic but at the same time also very rare. According to ConsumerWatch.com, annually the elevators in US make about 18 billion passenger trips. Those trips resulted in around 27 deaths yearly which is in accordance to the estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The fatality rate is very low per trip. If you try to examine the medical literature, you would not find injuries and deaths related to elevator mishaps since they tend to be very uncommon. In a report published in Occupational Health and Safety, people who install and maintain elevators may be injured in their line of work in different ways including electrical shocks, falls, and muscle strains as well as suffer injuries which are related to confined spaces, cranes, scaffolds, heavy equipments, hoisting and lockout or tagout.
The safety profile for the passengers is much better. Since every elevator is equipped with redundant, intricate and regulated safety features, catastrophic incidents rarely happen outside of television shows and movies according to a reliable report. There are rope elevators that may require a single woven steel cable alone but they usually have about four to eight cables to support.
Additionally, the elevators are equipped with automatic braking system which is backed by electromagnetic brakes. Finally the report notes have a heavy duty shock absorber system which is designed to save passengers in the event that all safety precautions fail to function.
There is a case report in a certain forensic journal about the case of a 48 year old elevator maintenance mechanic who died when an unfinished elevator dropped suddenly for about 10 feet. A team of physicist and doctors in Europe concluded that the drop initially was really fatal at all. However, since the elevator was much heavier compared to the man, it reached the bottom first and then the kinetic energy transferred to the man when he hit the bottom floor. The incident catapulted the man 20 feet back to the air. The fall from the height crushed the man’s skull and caused brain hemorrhage.