Accidents in elevator hoist way – non elevator trades

This last week I learned about 2 newer accidents in the elevator world.  

1 x Miami, FL – A man working at MET Miami Project fell 4 stories down an elevator shaft.  He was a construction worker.  The person was taken to the hospital.

1 x Simi Valley, CA – Construction worker fell down a 4 story building’s elevator hoist way.  The person was taken to the hospital.

In the State of Illinois there is a notice put out by the State Fire Marshall about people entering hoist ways, it needs to be under the supervision of a licensed elevator contractor.  In our state we had a series of accidents from smoke detector companies accessing the elevator hoist way unattended.   The cost for a trained person to be onsite during hoist way work is much less expensive then an accident occurring at your building. 

The Miami and Simi Valley accidents may be from not protecting the elevator shaft.  Impossible to say without seeing the site.  But one thing we can say is maybe there could have been more we could have done to prevent the accidents.

We had a post about demo companies and open hoist ways back in 2015 which is worth a read.

http://colleyelevator.blogspot.com/2015/08/what-happens-when-demo-contractors-try.html

Let’s be safe, lets identify unsafe conditions and bring it to the attention of the building owner or general contractor.  Someone’s complacency could be another person’s life ending.  Saying something could save someone’s life.  Lets go to work and come home safe.

There is an event coming up put on by NAESAI about elevator constructor’s safety and the protection of elevator people.  If you have time to go, it will be worth it.

https://www.naesai.org/sessions/739

Thank you to Tom Sybert for his elevator radio show which alerts us to these events so we can learn from them.  

www.elevatorradioshow.com

As always feel free to contact us at www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.