Home Elevator Safety | Hidden and Deadly Gap Public Service Announcement
Channel: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Date: 2022-01-11

Home elevators pose a hidden and deadly hazard - children can be crushed to death in a gap that may exist between the doors.

Young children can become entrapped in the space between the exterior landing (hoistway) door and the interior elevator car door or gate if there is a hazardous gap, and suffer serious injuries or death when the elevator is called to another floor.

Three children were entrapped in this way during the summer of 2021, with one seven-year-old boy suffering fatal injuries in an elevator at a vacation rental home in North Carolina. In some incidents, children have suffered multiple skull fractures, fractured vertebrae, traumatic asphyxia and other horrific and lifelong injuries.

Regardless of whether you have an elevator in your home or are staying in a vacation rental with one, consumers are urged to check the safety of the elevator using the following tips:

- Make sure that the gap between doors is no more than four inches deep.  If you are uncertain of the measurement or are otherwise concerned about the safety of the elevator, lock the elevator itself in an unusable position, or lock all access doors to the elevator.

- Have a qualified elevator inspector examine the home elevator for this dangerous gap and other potential safety hazards, inspecting to the latest ASME A17.3-2017, Safety Code for Existing Elevator and Escalators.

- Dangerous gaps can be made safer by placing space guards on the back of the exterior (i.e., hoistway) door or installing an electronic monitoring device that deactivates the elevator when a child is detected in the gap.

- Contact the elevator manufacturer or an elevator installer to obtain these critical safety devices to address this hidden hazard. Elevator installers should never allow any gap greater than four inches deep to exist in an elevator entryway.

- Check https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls to see if the elevator has been recalled. If it has been recalled, call the recalling firm immediately to arrange for the fix.