With safety as important as ever, with you guys covering zillions of units and pressured to get to get the job in on time. I would like to share safety related stories that myself and and my father were involved in from my book "Elevator Man Stories"

Will try to make weekly installments.

As Always Work Safe,

Jim

As a kid I was forced to visit this old Barber. While getting my hair cut he asked me what my Dad did for a living. I told him that he was an Elevator Man and worked for Otis Elevator. “No kidding” he replied, I worked for Otis for a few days until I was drilling a hole in a hoistway and a bridge plank came down the hatch and left a row of slivers in the back of my jacket and that’s how I became a barber.”

Hmm, well that's quite understandable.

Unrelated story- I always wore my wedding ring, until a guy on the job fell off some scaffolding. A nail hooked his wedding ring, and pulled his finger off. That was the last day I ever wore mine.

40 Years Part II

Mom always seemed to worry just a little when Dad went off to work. As a little kid I didn’t know what was bothering her until one day there was a knock on our door. It was summer and our living room was filled with kids playing games, eating watermelon and just generally messing around. The man at the door turned out to be Phil, one of Dads best friends and fellow elevator man.

Mom asked us to be quiet and not trash the house until her return. When asked what happened she told us, Dad was hurt and Phil was taking her to the hospital. The next time I saw my Father he was in a hospital, flat on his back and not happy. He had been working on a toe-guard junction box at the bottom floor, lost his balance and fell into the hoistway. The fall was a short one but did its damage. He was very lucky because he hit the pit floor missing all of the pit equipment. He was in a hospital bed for the next month or so and then rested at home for the next two months.

Great Story CC...Looking forward to the next one...

Over the next month we visited Dad every day and during those visits to the hospital, he must have felt I was old enough to appreciate the dangers of working on elevators. He started telling me about his near misses and the not-so-fortunate results of other accidents in which he was involved.

While adjusting a car and getting it up to speed, a helper working in an adjacent hoistway had ventured too far into the hoistway belonging to Dad’s running car. The Car hit him and knocked him down the hoistway. The helper fell two floors severely breaking his arm. All work stopped so this man could be helped. Dad suggested keeping the man still and not moving him. He told them all to keep him as comfortable as possible until medical help arrived. He was overruled by the Foreman who was an old timer and thought he knew it all. Well, he didn’t. The foreman tied the broken arm to the man’s chest with #16 wire and had him climb up a ladder to the landing. Two minutes later help arrived. Due to the extensive damage to the arm, the move and the shoddy first aid, he lost his arm.

Dad went on to tell me about another large job he was working in LA when a skip with four men aboard fell eight floors when the rigging for the three-to-three rope blocks failed. Three men rode it out but didn’t survive the impact. The fourth man managed to grab a spreader beam during the descent and was able to hang on, unfortunately he was hit by the rest of the rigging coming down the hatch and was also killed.

During those days accidents were commonplace with no safety skips, guard rails or harnesses. The companies tried putting guard rails on the skips, but found out we would just use them to gain the extra height to work rather than pulling the skips up by hand. Also, there were always things coming down the hoistways. Guard rails just barred our emergency exit so the crews resisted the idea. I, personally, never worked off a skip equipped with safeties until about 1970. Once the idea caught on and the crews got used to them, they saved many lives.

Dad went on to tell of a freak accident that happened on an out-of-town job. The crews were working four tens in order to bail on Thursday so they could spend three days at home. It just so happened that after normal working hours, a full roll of carpet came down the hoistway and landed directly on top of one of the mechanic’s feet. The roll crushed his foot along with the steel toe that was supposed to protect it. The man never worked again and to make matters worse, the accident happened after contractual working hours so he had a tough time getting his benefits.

My home elevator has 10 year history from http://www.saneielevator.com and it work well so far.save my momey

The company dispatched my Father to a Victorville cement plant to find the cause of the death of an inside maintenance man that had been killed while working on one of the plant’s elevators. The man had been crushed in the pit while he and another maintenance man were attempting to repair the elevator. Dad discovered that the limit switches were not explosion proof and concrete dust had filled them up to the point where the finger contacts couldn’t open. A sad story for the man’s family and equally distressing for the other man who was running the elevator.

Here's one for ya Christy.

2 guys doing a controller and cab mod in a refinery. Part of the mod was to install a new platform in the elevator. Had counterweights hung at the top. Rise about 250 feet.

New platform was a genuine SOB to get into place. They beat and banged on it for the better part of 2 hours, before getting it into place. They did NOT install the platform bolts.

Untied the counterweights, helper got on the car top iron to run the elevator down to get the mechanics tools off. Platform had around 3000 lbs. of concrete set on it to counterbalance not having a cab.

Mechanic out on the 1st floor telling helper to run the car down so he could get the tools off. As helper ran car down, Fire lintel caught the platform, flipped it out of the stiles, and dumped the 3000 lbs of concrete.

Helper rode that rig 250 feet straight up and was thrown into the ceiling with such force, fat cells were stuck to the ceiling and dripping oil for months.

Then he got the 250 ft. ride to the pit.

Of course he did not survive.
Was a halloween eve in the mid 80's.

I got to go to the job with the BA on Monday. I was the Steward for the company that the incedent happened. Was gut wrenching.

And the worse part was staring at the platform bolts not 10 feet away, sitting on a 55 gallon drum..

Quite a story Broke Sheave, one or two bolts could have saved a life and not to mention years of grief for family members.

Work Safe Yourself,

Jim

My Father was involved in and investigated another fatality in Hawaii. Even in his later years he couldn’t get this accident out of his mind. A 200 pound man was in a disabled elevator. The building maintenance man opened the hoistway doors with a lunar key. The car was around twenty-four inches below the top of the entrance. The maintenance man, who was a little guy, got a ladder and entered the car. He then assisted the man down the ladder. While climbing out of the car it leveled up to the next landing, pinning him at his mid section between the car and hoistway sill at the next floor. The man died shortly thereafter. The fire department arrived and suggested cutting the platform around the body to recover it. The elevator man that had arrived within minutes of the accident suggested tying a rope under the man’s arms and running the car down on inspection. They decided that was the best approach and went ahead and the body ended up on the car. Dad found that the building had short floors and the elevator had a very long leveling zone. The weight of the 200 pound man stretched the ropes enough to keep the up level switch off the next floors leveling vane. After the man exited the car and the maintenance man stepped on the ladder the ropes un-stretched to the point where the up leveling switch engaged the vane and the car was able to level up to the next floor. Dad made the necessary controller changes to this non-Haughton equipment to prevent another accident.

Wow, scary stuff.

Here's the time I almost got killed.

It was a little cantilevered hydro, a 40 fpm, 1000# capacity residential elevator, at a church. Bottom floor opened outdoors. Doesn't "sound" deadly, right? Hall doors were swing, like a door in a house. Remember, residential elevators have no refuge space in the pit, just 8 to 12 inches, enough room for the sling and platform, with maybe 2" of runby.

We get comfortable with commercial elevators, always knowing where the refuge space is, knowing it's there. Not so with this one.

My mechanic had just finished wiring the new controller, said he and his helper had checked everything out, and they were ready for inspection. When I was younger, I used to beleive people at their word. Mistake #1.

I put my "hatchet" in the interlock, sent the car up, and got in the pit to retreive a tool, without shutting the power off, or securing the car. Mistake #2.

It was a windy day, and the swing hall door slammed shut behind me, with me in the pit. I hadn't even blocked the door from closing. Mistake #3.

The car started coming down, with the toe gaurd obscuring the interlock arm. The door was held secure by the interlock at the top corner of the hall door, but I couldn't reach it now. Doorknob was useless, with the shorting bar hooked in the can.

While in hindsight, I might have kicked the door open, my very first thought was to hit the pit stop switch. And even if I had kicked it open, the car might not have stopped anyway, if the shorting bar had pulled out of the wooden door, and remained in the interlock can. If by chance, with maybe time enough for a single donkey kick, and if I had enough force, and had managed to get the door open this way, I would still have had to crawl out from under the toegaurd, even with the car still coming down. There wasn't enough time to get out my sliderule and compute the odds....

I reached for the pit stop switch, but to my dismay, it did not work. I flipped it off, and the car kept coming down. No limit switches in the pit that I could hit to stop the car, they were all mounted on the car top. Holy Crap, this is it, what am I going to do now?

(Now this whole incident happened in the blink of an eye. Takes longer to tell it now, but it all went by in a flash, just a few milliseconds. I'll never forget it as long as I live)

As a last resort, I threw my arm up alongside the platform, squeezing it into the corner of the shafts' drywall, even as the platform was now digging into my shoulder. I extended my fingers as far as I could, car still decending, in a desperate, last-chance bid to trip the lock. I just barely was able to tip the interlock roller to unlock the door, with the very tip of my finger, freeing the door, and stopping the car. As the car came to a stop, my body was now pushed down far enough, to the point where my fingertip came off the roller, but the door had popped open.

It was at the very last split-second to trip it for me, the very last chance to save my life. Otherwise, I would have been crushed to death, like a paper cup in that shallow pit.

My life came down to the length of my arm, and some quick thinking.

But it's far better, to "think ahead".

I had no pit props with me. Mistaske #4.

1. Don't rely on just one method for securing a car
2. Don't assume the safety circuit works unless you prove it yourself. As years go by, it needs to be checked again anyway. Sh*t happens, and things can break shorted.
3. Don't get in a resdential pit without a pit pipe stand.
4. Block swing doors from closing.
5. Secure the power.
6. Don't trust your safety to anyone's word. Verify for yourself.

WOW Vic...

Closest I ever came was on a recable. 20 some odd years ago. Standing on a back of a cab 42 stories up, pulling a cable over the sheave and the @%#$# marriage broke. As the cable came down the hatch my arm got caught in an asshole in the cable and fortunately wedged my arm in the holdback, rather than taking me 42 floors down. I was able to reach the ratchet, but the cable in the hold back and tighten it, and then holler for help so my buddies could get me freed up...

I wake up some nights thinking about it.

Listening to these stories always make me a little sick to my stomach with a nervous feeling.
Earlier today a local fire fighter told me his most recent elevator near miss. An elevator in a local hospital stopped between floors with a patient on a strecher and a nurse attending. The maintenance men were in the machine room when he arrived. He explained to me they may have been trying to move the elevator on thier own. He stopped them and had them shut down the power to the elevator. The fire fighters were then able to safely extract the two passengers.

Now I'm thinking I want to make a educational contribution to our local fire department. If anyone has done so In the past? What have you provided to them (safety classes, books, equipment such as door keys).

Dang, that was close1!

Those were the days before harnesses were widely used, too. A good reminder for everyone not to get too comfy and relaxed on the car top.

Harness???
We didn't even know what one was back in those days. Climb rails 2 or 3 floors with no fall protection 50 stories up, just to hang a chocker.

I'm delighted that safety has moved to the fore front on a lot of these issues, and safer methods for heavy repair have been implemented.

And I don't missing turning back cables, and dealing with hot babbit, not one bit. Hooray for the new shackles!!!!

i read this stuff with bated breath knowing full well the consequences for mistakes. me and my brethren here have mostly been good however there was a accident lately that was nasty for the bloke and the other kone guys.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/putting-together-the-jigsaw-man/story-e6frf7jo-1226114018938