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.
