4 ms·

I was on an elevator full of people, and between two floors something went wrong and we went into free-fall for part of a second. We made it to the next floor,

by alrs 9y ago

I was on an elevator full of people, and between two floors something went wrong and we went into free-fall for part of a second. We made it to the next floor, the door opened, my fellow passengers were content to stay in the elevator. I turned, said "My plan is to not die in an elevator today" and got off. What is wrong with people?

noja 9y ago
Did you ever ride in the elevator again?
- IanCal 9y ago
  It's reasonable to think that a randomly selected elevator is safe enough to ride, while also thinking the one you've just seen have some kind of fault is not.
  - kryptiskt 9y ago
    But why would an elevator that had demonstrated that it had a working safety brake like that be more unsafe than any other elevator? I trust in Elisha Otis.
    - amelius 9y ago
      By the way, here is a nice video explaining the mechanism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSjJjKcoNRk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSjJjKcoNRk
    - IanCal 9y ago
      A working safety break should be assumed to be the case, surely. Another, unknown fault not so. All it really tells you is at least one thing is definitely wrong with the lift.
- alrs 9y ago
  There was a bank of six, I stayed off that one for a week.
  - noja 9y ago
    How did you choose one week, rather than a day, or forever? Why were "people" foolish to stay in the elevator and keep using it that day, while you were not foolish because you waited a week?
    - Filligree 9y ago
      Presumably, a week was enough time for a technician to give it a look-over.
icebraining 9y ago
Elevators have pretty good safety mechanisms. Even cutting the cable wouldn't have killed anyone. I'd probably leave too, but just because I wouldn't want to get stuck inside it if it stopped in the middle of two floors, especially since it was full. But for fear of death? Nah. From Wikipedia: "In fact, prior to the September 11th terrorist attacks, the only known free-fall incident in a modern cable-borne elevator happened in 1945 when a B-25 bomber struck the Empire State Building in fog, severing the cables of an elevator cab, which fell from the 75th floor all the way to the bottom of the building, seriously injuring (though not killing) the sole occupant — the elevator operator. (...) In Thailand, in November 2012, a woman was killed in free falling elevator, in what was reported as the "first legally recognised death caused by a falling lift". That's a pretty good safety record. Certainly much better than stairs.
- mrob 9y ago
  alrs was probably in no real danger, but why should they be expected to memorize the exact risk profile of every mechanism they're exposed to? In practice we delegate most risk management to government regulation. It would be very time consuming to evaluate everything on a case by case basis. It's a reasonable heuristic to assume things are safe when they act as they usually do and dangerous when they act differently. Weird behavior is a sign that the regulations might have failed, and weird behavior is by definition rare, so the cost of avoiding it is likely lower than the cost of calculating the true danger.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    I'm not saying alrs should. The decision to leave is reasonable. The decision to judge others ("What is wrong with people?") is not.
    - namelost 9y ago
      That depends whether the other occupants knew about the safety features and record of elevators. If they did, then they were making a sound judgement. If they didn't, then they were being completely reckless.
ajb 9y ago
What's wrong is that people have a strong, biassed, prior that they will continue to exist. Taking action to avoid death occurs by instinct, not reason, since instinct is informed by evolution, rather than just your life to date.

by alrs 9y ago

noja 9y ago

Did you ever ride in the elevator again?

IanCal 9y ago
It's reasonable to think that a randomly selected elevator is safe enough to ride, while also thinking the one you've just seen have some kind of fault is not.
- kryptiskt 9y ago
  But why would an elevator that had demonstrated that it had a working safety brake like that be more unsafe than any other elevator? I trust in Elisha Otis.
  - amelius 9y ago
    By the way, here is a nice video explaining the mechanism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSjJjKcoNRk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSjJjKcoNRk
  - IanCal 9y ago
    A working safety break should be assumed to be the case, surely. Another, unknown fault not so. All it really tells you is at least one thing is definitely wrong with the lift.
alrs 9y ago
There was a bank of six, I stayed off that one for a week.
- noja 9y ago
  How did you choose one week, rather than a day, or forever? Why were "people" foolish to stay in the elevator and keep using it that day, while you were not foolish because you waited a week?
  - Filligree 9y ago
    Presumably, a week was enough time for a technician to give it a look-over.

icebraining 9y ago

Elevators have pretty good safety mechanisms. Even cutting the cable wouldn't have killed anyone. I'd probably leave too, but just because I wouldn't want to get stuck inside it if it stopped in the middle of two floors, especially since it was full. But for fear of death? Nah. From Wikipedia: "In fact, prior to the September 11th terrorist attacks, the only known free-fall incident in a modern cable-borne elevator happened in 1945 when a B-25 bomber struck the Empire State Building in fog, severing the cables of an elevator cab, which fell from the 75th floor all the way to the bottom of the building, seriously injuring (though not killing) the sole occupant — the elevator operator. (...) In Thailand, in November 2012, a woman was killed in free falling elevator, in what was reported as the "first legally recognised death caused by a falling lift". That's a pretty good safety record. Certainly much better than stairs.

mrob 9y ago
alrs was probably in no real danger, but why should they be expected to memorize the exact risk profile of every mechanism they're exposed to? In practice we delegate most risk management to government regulation. It would be very time consuming to evaluate everything on a case by case basis. It's a reasonable heuristic to assume things are safe when they act as they usually do and dangerous when they act differently. Weird behavior is a sign that the regulations might have failed, and weird behavior is by definition rare, so the cost of avoiding it is likely lower than the cost of calculating the true danger.
- icebraining 9y ago
  I'm not saying alrs should. The decision to leave is reasonable. The decision to judge others ("What is wrong with people?") is not.
  - namelost 9y ago
    That depends whether the other occupants knew about the safety features and record of elevators. If they did, then they were making a sound judgement. If they didn't, then they were being completely reckless.

ajb 9y ago

What's wrong is that people have a strong, biassed, prior that they will continue to exist. Taking action to avoid death occurs by instinct, not reason, since instinct is informed by evolution, rather than just your life to date.