This day in history: Canadian journalist Benjamin Taylor A Bell died after falling down an elevator shaft to his death on this day in 1904. While taking his habitual shortcut to the Canadian Mining Review offices through an adjacent store, Bell walked through the wrong door in the store and fell 10 feet down an elevator shaft.
While this is well over a century ago, elevator deaths still occur.
About 27 people are killed in elevator accidents each year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. "Half of the annual elevator-related fatalities occur in repair or maintenance workers who service elevators, or people who use elevators as part of their employment, such as in an office building. Of those, half of the fatalities result from falls into the shaft. In the occupational-related elevator deaths category, 53 percent occur during installation or repair, 17 percent occur during work in the shaft or car, and 30 percent occur during performance of work adjacent to (but not on board) the elevator." Source
The least safe elevators appear to be at construction sites and mines. The largest number of deaths occurred in South Africa in 1995 where a train crashed through a safety barrier and fell into a mine shaft, hitting an elevator which was carrying 104 workers and causing it to plunge to the bottom of the shaft. All 104 died.
The second deadliest elevator accident also happened in South Africa. In 1987, a methane gas explosion at a St. Helena gold mine severed the cable of a double-deck elevator, causing it to fall 1.4 kilometers to the bottom of the mine shaft, killing all 52 people on board. 10 others who were not in the elevator were killed in the explosion.
A Houston doctor in 2003 was killed after his head was trapped in elevator doors at the hospital where he worked. He was partially decapitated as the elevator ascended, and he also sustained injuries to his ribs and spine.
In 2016, Kristopher Moules, 25, a correctional officer, and Timothy Gilliam Jr., 27, an out-of-county inmate being housed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, fell to their deaths after an altercation between them caused them to slam into the exterior of the fifth floor elevator doors. Despite the elevator having its up-to-date working credentials, the door popped open on impact, causing the men to fall five flights down the shaft to their deaths. The county declared CO Moules' death a homicide and declared Gilliam's death an accident.
Hundreds died in the elevators in the World Trade Center on 9/11, and the elevators may have helped spread the fires. "Some people were trapped in elevator cars that stopped working when they were damaged. For those unfortunate people, they either had to wait until the buildings collapsed entirely or until the fires got to them. All told, only about 100 people actually managed to escape from elevators on September 11. In fact, the elevator shafts of the World Trade Center buildings were found by experts to have aided the fires in spreading after the fact. A big elevator shaft is a perfect chimney for drafts that can make fire spread quickly through a large skyscraper." Source
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