Georgef551
Member
Posts: 426
Registered: 11-08 |
EarthQuake said:
I had an elevator drop on me before while delivering pizzas. It was only like 3 feet, and from the second story, but the safety mechanism kicked in so I'm here to tell about it. It was one hell of a scary moment, to say the least. The maintenance crew was at the building at the time, so I only had to wait about 30 minutes for them to come open the doors for me. I think the scariest part was actually crawling out of the elevator onto the first floor. I had that feeling as if the elevator was going to drop again and slice my body in half (although it wouldn't have in any case).
I'm not afraid of elevators now, either.
Elevators are very safe. With the traction models, each cable can hold 1.5 times the rated capacity, the elevator, and counterweight, so you have seven that can snap. If the eigth one goes, you have four brakes to stop the car, and only ONE needs to work. I think there's only been three cases where elevators fell and crashed, one being 9/11, one being a plane crashing into the Empire State Building (oddly enough, the woman in the elevator plummed 75 stories, and lived to tell about it!), and I believe one happened in Chicago (not sure). Not sure about Gen2 models (Otis).
Wow. THAT had to be scary! I've been in shaky ones, and those that vilently rose/dropped when trying to level off.
One that really scared me was in the Sands (New Jersey). It normally takes the elevator about 4 seconds to go from 3 to 1, but there was a screeching sound, that started at 5, a little slow at 4, took a bit longer to 3, about 10 seconds to 2, and about 20 seconds to get to 1. Narrowly missed getting stuck in a full elevator that day.
Chilly Willy's turn:Scary as hell? You must scare easily. :D
When you're the only one there, and it acts all funny, it is kinda' scary.
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Lessee...Start at 4, hit 6, go DOWN to 1? Doors don't open, then goes up to 6.
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You took an elevator heading down. They ALL do that. If you don't want to go down, get on an elevator heading up. That's why there's usually lights above the elevator that tells you the direction it's currently going. If it doesn't have those lights, you have to watch the floor indicators for that elevator to see which way it's headed.
Nope, that wasn't it (good hypothosis, though). I hit the "UP" button (as seen), and I was the only one in the garage at the time. After heading the right way (up), I realised the elevator had a "Park Position". (Where I said "I guess it had to home itself.") If you don't use the elevator for a few seconds after door close, it heads to a determined parking spot, in this case, 1, and the doors stay closed. I hit the 6 button just a hare too late, so it went to park. Not knowing there was a park position initially, made this a bit frightening. It was fine from that point, on.
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06-28-09 18:24 
