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If you regularly have to use the elevator, the thought probably flashed through your head at least once: what if the cables holding the cabin break and you fall into the shaft? And will you be able to survive?
It sounds creepy. But in practice, such a situation is extremely unlikely. Statistics show that elevators are the safest way to move between floors. For example, stairs in the USA every year dies D. H. Blazewick. Stair‑related injuries treated in United States emergency departments / The American Journal of Emergency Medicine an average of 12,000 people and more than 1 million are injured. For comparison: as a result of accidents with elevators every year M. McCann. NIOSHTIC‑2 Publications Search — 20039852 — Deaths and injuries involving elevators or escalators (revised) / CDC approximately 27 people die and about 10,000 are injured.
At the same time, most of the victims in the elevators are builders or repairmen who worked in violation of safety regulations. Passengers die every year M. McCann. NIOSHTIC‑2 Publications Search — 20039852 — Deaths and injuries involving elevators or escalators (revised) / CDC about five are people who tried to get out of a faulty cabin on their own or found themselves trapped by doors or between floors.
The elevators are equipped with numerous safety systems to prevent the cabin from falling.
The cabin does not hang out in the shaft on cables by itself, but moves A. A. Poletaev. Elevator operation on vertical rails. And if it starts to descend faster than the set speed, the traps are triggered and the elevator slows down smoothly due to the friction of the pads on these rails.
In addition, the pulley system on the roof of the cabin has A. A. Poletaev. Elevator operation an additional fuse. If the blocks in it move too fast, it will lock up. So in the event of a break in one cable, the cabin will hang on the remaining ones. The steel ropes are strong, and it is very unlikely that they will break all at once.
In addition, there are built—in shock absorbers in the lower part of the shaft - these are pistons in oil-filled cylinders. If the elevator falls from a low height and the catchers do not have time to slow it down due to the friction of the pads on the rails, the shock absorbers will accept What if you were on an elevator and the cable broke? / HowStuffWorks take a hit on yourself. And finally, the air itself at the bottom of the mine, compacting under the falling cabin, serves as a kind of cushion, further reducing potential damage.
But let's say the cables broke, the pulley locking mechanism is faulty, and the catchers did not work. The elevator is falling, and you have a few seconds. What to do?
There is a popular advice on the Internet: in the last seconds before the elevator crashes into the bottom of the shaft, you need to jump up to be in the air during the collision. But this is another myth.
First of all, you won't be able to What if you were on an elevator and the cable broke? / HowStuffWorks accurately time the jump. And secondly, even if it did work out, human muscles simply would not have the strength to compensate for the speed of the elevator's fall — even if you are a world-class athlete. At best, you will reduce the How to Survive an Elevator Free Fall / Live Science it is 3-5 km/h — this is absolutely not enough. Most likely, you will not only hurt yourself when falling, but also break your head in a jump if you can pull off this crazy trick.
If you just stand, even holding on to the handrails (if any), the entire impact will be on your legs and spine and you risk serious injury.
This will distribute the impact force over the largest area of your body. And no particular area will be at risk of being injured by the weight of any other part of the body, says What Is the Best Option in a Free‑Falling Elevator? / The New York Times Eliot Frank, a research engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Biomedical Engineering.Therefore, the best tactic is to lie on your back on the floor as evenly as possible.
You may think that you will save yourself by bending your legs or pulling yourself up on the handrails. But at the moment of impact, when falling from a great height, your legs simply will not be able to support the weight of your own body. Even the weight of the head would be too much What Is the Best Option in a Free‑Falling Elevator? / The New York Times for the neck, so you can't hold it up. Press your head to the floor, protecting it with your hands.
So lying on your back is the safest How to Survive an Elevator Free Fall / Live Science option when the elevator falls. You will still be in a lot of pain, and you may break a few ribs, but you will increase the chances of keeping your internal organs intact.
