I worked for Delta which was an Otis subsidiary company. We had Otis's safety policy. I did think SOME of the ideas worked well in most cases.I also found some of their policies could leave new mechanics with a false sense of security especially when servicing older equipment.
Personally I never use jumpers for troubleshooting. I am a field adjuster with 30 yrs in the trade. I may use a couple jumpers during a full load test, mostly for things like ETS and terminal slowdown tests but that is it. I find the use of a meter has always negated the need for jumpers. If I need to run a car out of the pit or overhead, I may use a wire for the 2 or three seconds needed AFTER I personally check the car. Obviously things like Otis safety jumper tags are needed on mod and new construction start-up procedures but once that car is in Automatic, jumpers should not be used. If you need to bypass a non-safety related circuit to allow the unit to run pending a part, then it should be hard wired with long bright wiring and properly tagged. An example of this might be where I needed to keep a motor generator running due to a faulty shutdown timer. If a mechanic gets a call of doors being knocked off the track, it is a SERVICE call and requires 2 men FOR A SAFETY FACTOR. Anytime the unit needs to be moved with the doors open, a second man with adequate communication should be at the affected landing. People being in a hurry or also being hurried by company management is what gets other people or themselves hurt.

yes smitty this is what i meant. shorts are only used ie fault in safeties or door lock cct's. again with a second man manning the effected area when required.in aus we have 2 landing door locks generally plus a car door lock so when 1 landing lock is open but the doors are shut you can safely short the 1 lock after you have inspected where the lift is and checked that the doors are shut. just on your wire shorts of non essential ccts,i agree with the type which is the idea of the long wires and fluoro orange tags with your name on it.

Rule for Jumpers are the same as Firearms..

Jumpers don't kill people who use them carelessly do. Control of the elevator is the key along with jumper awareness. You have got to KNOW what you are jumping, have total control of the elevator, and when leaving remove every jumper you have put on.

You can put tags, Jumper lists, timed jumpers, and all kinds of little things, but if you're going to use them you have to know what you're doing and keep up with them and go through your mental check list, before you leave that job, and remove everything.

Between the falls, crushing injuries, electrouction, this business is dangerous enough without having this crap occur..

I vividly remember, supervisors, who knew what they were doing, would immediately dismiss anyone caught breaking a jumper infraction. It's about pride in your trade..

The trouble is those well indocterined,well intentioned supervisors are few and far . Companies are to caught up in whose number one and their managers are the scrummers how those supervisors kept their eye on. They made into these positions by sacrificing our safety and we let them .k1 led the way

You Guys better check this one out.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tYE4Qm0g30

Note here so called elevator expert only put one jumper on and the car ran w/DO.

NEII ought to put together one of those, and have a miniature elevator, with a REAL SACRIFICIAL lab rat, getting caught between the doors. Students seeing that should get the message..

After reading all of the above, time out jumpers, licensing and legislation will not and cannot replace “COMPETENCE” It’s all about training and supervised experience. There are elevator companies out there using employees that have less experience and knowledge about the equipment there’re working on, then the guy that comes to fix the copy machine in your office. Say what you want but how many fatal accidents have been attributed to IUEC trained personnel as opposed the non IUEC personnel?
My Case Rests……………………………
As Always Work Safe,
Jim

When Suzanne Hart was killed the mechanics had years of experience and are IUEC to my knowledge. Anyone can forget. Surgeons forget sponges in people and they are trained for years before they can operate. It really comes down to a simple question is a jumer that can remove itself from service safer than one that cannot? If jumper left behind accident are responcable for only 1% of all accident that equals 1 death every 3 years and 1,700 injurys in the US alone!!! And belive me the numbers are not easy to come by. But my research shows about 18 death cases in the last 50 years with doors jumped. So if the US is only 10% of the worlds elevators and the rest of the world has the same safety record as us. (witch I dont belive)That would come to 3 deaths a year and 17,000 injurys from jumper that have been forgotten!!! The majors are all world wide companies and that is why jumper training is a yearly mandated safety topic.

Good assessment, I completely agree with you regarding passenger miles traveled in elevators as compared to all forms of transportation. In all probability there were more fatalities during the morning commute into NYC on the day of Susan Harts’ death.
Why are elevators the safest form of transportation? It’s engineering along with the personnel that install, adjust, repair and do the maintenance.
Call it a mistake and blame it on an occupied call, time management or boss on your tail? Sorry, don’t buy it. I could almost understand if the route guy got his elevators mixed up, but, and a very large but. First off, didn’t check if the car he was working on was still on automatic. Second, check the lock circuit with a meter or test light and then worst of all, go ahead and jumper BOTH the locks and gate switch. Just how long could the first two parts take? A minute tops. The last and fatal act is not and never has been an option for trouble shooting. It’s just not done at least during the 40 years I was in the business. I would have been fired on the spot or would fire anyone working for me that took out both the gate switch and the locks on a car that was not under complete control. (I will post a story that happened in Seattle with a much better ending)
It’s a sad story, sad for Susan Harts family, sad for our industry and not to mention poor route guy that has to carry this rest of his life.

completely agree christy. there has been an influx of single lock instalations here which confuse mechanics as we always had twin lock lifts. facts are you do not short both locks and car doors at all without a helper standing at the front of the lift under our control. even then normally you would just kick the lift with the helper in position to gain car top access.

All right Guys!

How bout I offer a little kit that would cost your boss around 200 bucks work on just about any elevator that you could install in less than an a hour right at the controller. Once installed, it would take two jumpers to run the car and only on inspection.

I'm a 40 year retired IUEC and would to happy to build a test these things under someone else's liability.

Jim

PS: For chump change just in the past few months, one death and one serious injury could have been prevented.

Lets not forget that jumping out door locks is just one point that causes injury or death. leaving jumpers behind on slow down switches, SOS switches , stop switches. May not produce the dramatic results as door locks but injure elevator workers and the riding public none the less. And for around the same 200$ every elevator person could be carring 3 Time Out Jumpers. That have been on the market for over 2 years. We use to just tell people to be careful. Now we supply hard hats , safety glasses and fall arrest systems. It is time to mandate the use of the Time Out Jumper and stop saying it shouldnt happen and it shouldnt I agree. But the point is it IS HAPPENING!!! And we are noy using what we have NOW to stop it.

Dan Z
Although I think the time out jumpers are a great idea! I still see that much more is needed.

An accident may still happen even with a jumper that times out. Would you agree?

When I have to jump out any part of a safety circuit I secure the car and visually check to see the car is empty. I then disable the door open circuit and/or place the elevator on inspection. With a meter I will check the safety circuit string and look for the openning. Then I will jump out the open portion of the safety circuit.

If the problem isn't so simple to follow my normal pattern of trouble-shooting then I adapt to the situation. Always keeping control of the elevator. And never allowing anyone but our personnel to ride while we are working on the elevator.

I am interested to learn how others approach and the procedures they use when out in the field. How can I improve on my pattern for a trouble call?

jkh Yes there is no question the TOJ is as dangerous as any jumper when in the closed posistion. The best thing about the TOJ is that it will take itself out after a set time something normal jumpers cant do. I belive that as in most cases the people who care enough to spen time doing x-tra research into their profesion and use sites like this are the least likely to have major safety problems. As everyone keeps saying what we were taught. Use your meter first. Get controll of the elevator. Know what and where your elevator is and who is on it. Very basic elevator 1 0 1 stuff. And if everyone is doing the right thing all the time no one would need the TOJ. And we could get rid of cops, lawers, and judges while we are at it. So as long as people are people and the way our industry is going with more and more units assinged to guys who then have to team up to preform their own repairs. No helper time and one man testing I dont see thing getting alot better real soon. It just really bothers me to hear of people being hurt or killed when you know it could of been prevented. FIRST by proper elevator safety protocal and second by the TOJ.

After looking at what I came up with discovered a weak point. It monitors the door close limit was well as the locks and gate switch. Problem is just about all door close limits open when the doors are closed. Not a positive input like the locks and gate switch. So, I’m backing off and only offering a simple kit that would require 2 jumpers to run the car rather the one. In this case the cost would 200 or less and might find its niche somewhere between FSSG* and nothing. The kit could be an alternative to FSSG on older and smaller jobs without inspection.

*FSSG is and add on that detects a jumper on the locks and gate switch and then places the car in inspection when detected. It’s a great idea and a “Life Saver” For more information contact.

Patrick A. Carrajat patrick@elevatorhistory.com

Jim,
I like the direction you are taking me. I personally feel we need additional circuits to help promote the safety of elevators. If we have the gate switch in one circuit and the hatch doors in another that means two jumpers are needed to by pass the car. If you add a switch to the door operator to make as the close limit opens there is a redundancy for safety for the car gate. I liked the second set of contacts in some of the old Westinghouse locks. Just add another control circuit and it may help! Yes i know it still comes down to the person putting on jumpers to bypass. But this is about percentages. Two is better then one, three is better then two!

DanZ
I did look into the timeout jumpers. Wurtec is selling them for $89.25 per unit! When I googled the timeout jumper you came up as the inventor. I would like to know if the information that concerns me about the unit is true? I was told that the maximum time that could be programmed is 99 hours and 59 minutes. Is that information correct?

Hey Dan, I'm not the inventor and don't really approve of them.

It's back to the guy on the job. We will talk more about my little change.

Jim

They could mandate on all units the new style door bypass switches that are found on the newer elevators that put you on car top inspection when active. I also like the idea of redundant door limits. The current use of a DPM limit is a great thing since the unit will not run until the doors are physically shut even if the gate circuit is jumped out. Of course any safety can be defeated if you try hard enough but as JKH said above, it is about percentages. Anything that makes this scenario more unlikely is a positive step. I really don't like the TOJ because to me anyhow, the best remedy for jumper carelessness is to totally discourage the use of them in ordinary troubleshooting. The door lock bypass circuit does give the field technician a safer means of bypassing the locks without the use of any jumpers at all.

The elevator man that was injured that got me thinking about the TOJ was hurt when a car ran with the car top stop switch had been jumped!!! Like I said the hall and car gate are the big attension getter but may not be the leading cause of people getting hurt. Killed maybe but hurt ???? Yes the TOJ are priced at around 90$ so 3 per man 270$ alot cheaper that even 200$ for every elevator. JKH the max time is 99hrs and 59 sec. But there is a master controll that can be set to only allow an predetermined amount of time. Say 10 miniutes if that is what a company decides to set their safety policy to.

Dan
I'm concerned that a cleaver mechanic will find a way to bypass any master control or a lazy manager will give out the password or leave it up to a mechanic to set up a TOJ.

Its my opinion that the best line of defense is at the controller. A door bypass circuit switch that disables the door open circuit or places the car on inspection when toggled. Training and additional redundancies in the gate and hatch door circuits I believe are better then any type of jumper.

I do wish you luck with your business endeavor.