Posted on 06/09/2014 4:03:39 PM PDT by rickmichaels
For most people, the scariest part of riding an elevator is the thought that it could suddenly plummet from great heights.
One man in Chile had the exact opposite (but equally terrifying) experience Friday, after an elevator he was riding in suddenly rocketed upwards out of control.
According to the Chilean news service Emol, 31-year-old José Vergara Acevedo entered the elevator on the first floor of a building at Bustamante Community Park in Providencia.
He presses a button to ascend, but you can already see there are problems as the elevator takes off without the doors having fully closed.
But when the doors open again mid-ride, it becomes clear to Acevedo that something is seriously amiss.
He presses the emergency stop button, then frantically begins to hammer every button on the panel, hoping to halt the elevators speedy ascent but to no avail.
In 15 seconds, the elevator rises past all of the buildings 31 floors, before violently slamming into the roof of the elevator shaft.
According to reports from Chilean media, Acevedo was seriously injured in the collision, and had to be taken to hospital with head and leg injuries.
I didn’t think that was possible, I wonder just how many of the safeties were bypassed......................all of them?
Due to my very strange and inquisitive nature I began to research elevators when I first went to college, as the elevators in the dorm towers were very old and slow. One day I used the elevator and it began to go up and down, up and down, up and down. Normally I would have panicked and hit the alarm button, but I had read that when an elevator gets “lost” it will go up and down to try and figure out what floor it is on.
Due to my very strange and inquisitive nature I began to research elevators when I first went to college, as the elevators in the dorm towers were very old and slow. One day I used the elevator and it began to go up and down, up and down, up and down. Normally I would have panicked and hit the alarm button, but I had read that when an elevator gets “lost” it will go up and down to try and figure out what floor it is on.
Booosh’s fault or a bad computer.
I guess you can’t jump up in the air just before it hits bottom if you’re going up.
first thing that came to my mind
sometimes when this sort of thing happened on a real old elevator, the cable or hoist pulley / beam above breaks off from the impact and the elevator goes into free fall with the only thing that might stop it is inertial brake clamps on the hoistway beams.
Thank God there was a solid roof or the man would have ended up on the moon!
Imagine if that had been an elevator in WTC...YIKES!
Nothing good happens above the first floor. d:^)
Guess he really didn’t have anywhere to go but up...
Yes, Otis Bush’s fault.
Nowhere to go but up.
Gawd I hate it when that happens.
>> l with head and leg injuries
Ouch. Nearly 14 m/h head first into the ceiling, and no doubt a reasonable speed back to the floor given rebound and gravity. Lucky to be alive.
It wasn’t the rise that got him, it was the sudden stop.
I suppose the salesman assured them that the Chinese elevators were just as good as the American ones, but cost 40% less....
I don’t like elevators. Or clowns. Especially elevators with clowns in them.
My first thought.
Almost as frightening as the clown in the White House!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.