# Surviving a freefall inside an elevator **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 16, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486 "2013-12-16T18:40:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/21 "2013-12-17T12:38:44Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > As I understand it, the Otis-style elevators are supposed to be fail-safe. That is, they cannot move without tension in the cable. But I wonder why they don’t build crumple zones at the bottom of non-Otis elevators? An elevator won’t be falling at more than the speed of a car crash. Cost, demand, and if they cared - they could do what Otis does 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/22 "2013-12-17T12:40:25Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > Wasn’t there a theory (that I’m sure has been busted) that if you stood in the middle of the elevator and managed to time it so that you jumped in the air a moment before the elevator hit bottom, you would drastically increase your chances of survival? My WAG on this is that even if you jump up from the floor of the lift you don’t change you speed relative to the floor of the lift shaft very much. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/23 "2013-12-17T13:08:36Z")
Assuming there is some sort of track that the elevator travels in with wheels or whatever to maintain its alignment, you might spend your time rocking the car as violently as you can back and forth or forward and backward. They just might cause enough momentary increases in friction to slow your fall somewhat, it certainly seems more plausible than trying a last second jump. Or, if you happen to pack Wile E. Coyote’s parasol, open it to stop the elevator roof from crashing on you. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/24 "2013-12-17T16:17:42Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > As I understand it, the Otis-style elevators are supposed to be fail-safe. That is, they cannot move without tension in the cable. But I wonder why they don’t build crumple zones at the bottom of non-Otis elevators? An elevator won’t be falling at more than the speed of a car crash. Because it’s solving a problem that doesn’t exist? As already stated correctly several times, since the invention of the elevator, the number of people ever killed in the US in a free falling elevator is zero. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/25 "2013-12-17T16:38:28Z")
Remember that what Elisha Otis invented wasn’t the elevator itself but the safety brake. And he demonstrated this at the World’s Fair in 1854. So the technology is well-established. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/26 "2013-12-17T17:09:25Z")
> [@mandala](#): > > There is a world outside the US. Yes, but I was including the rest of the world in the “one fatality ever from falling public elevators” statistic (in Thailand, in 2012). Even your own cite had no fatalities. Elevators are dangerous, sure, but dying from them falling isn’t one of the dangers you should be worried about. unless you’re using private/construction ones. ---
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/27 "2013-12-17T17:30:09Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > Wasn’t there a theory (that I’m sure has been busted) that if you stood in the middle of the elevator and managed to time it so that you jumped in the air a moment before the elevator hit bottom, you would drastically increase your chances of survival? > [@Floater](#): > > My WAG on this is that even if you jump up from the floor of the lift you don’t change you speed relative to the floor of the lift shaft very much. See post #4 for a link to Cecil’s column. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/28 "2013-12-18T07:47:37Z")
A wild idea is to climb onto, or jump onto, the roof of the elevator. That roof is software material and the hope is that the bending of the roof gives some (more) shock absorber effect than the floor. The downside is that you might then get hurt by the cable or falling debris which the roof was otherwise protecting you from. Also the roof may have sharp bits which get squashed into your body. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/29 "2013-12-18T08:05:30Z")
Perhaps the best strategy for survival is to be [Betty Lou Oliver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Lou_Oliver) in 1945. She not only survived the B-52 bomber direct hit on the Empire State building (with serious burn injuries), but when she got into the elevator to go to the hospital, its cables snapped, and she plummeted seventy-five goddamn stories to the basement. And lived to tell about it. And as soon as she recovered from the worst day of her life, a few months later, she went back to work on the 79th floor and kept on riding the elevator. One tough mama. They don’t make 'em like they used to! ---
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/30 "2013-12-18T14:19:13Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > A wild idea is to climb onto, or jump onto, the roof of the elevator. How? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/31 "2013-12-18T15:10:55Z")
From a thread a few years ago, here are my posts regarding the efficacy of jumping just before the elevator hits bottom: [post #12](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16195328&postcount=12) [post #20](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16195783&postcount=20) ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/32 "2013-12-18T18:26:21Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Perhaps the best strategy for survival is to be [Betty Lou Oliver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Lou_Oliver) in 1945. She not only survived the B-52 bomber direct hit on the Empire State building (with serious burn injuries), but when she got into the elevator to go to the hospital, its cables snapped, and she plummeted seventy-five goddamn stories to the basement. And lived to tell about it. And as soon as she recovered from the worst day of her life, a few months later, she went back to work on the 79th floor and kept on riding the elevator. One tough mama. They don’t make 'em like they used to! Ahem. _points at post #19_ ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/33 "2013-12-18T19:18:16Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > Wasn’t there a theory (that I’m sure has been busted) that if you stood in the middle of the elevator and managed to time it so that you jumped in the air a moment before the elevator hit bottom, you would drastically increase your chances of survival? Assuming the elevator is in a true free-fall, you just have to jump hard enough so that you would jump as high as the elevator just fell to cancel out the velocity that you’ve achieved during your fall. In other words, if the elevator just fell 80 feet, you’d have to jump hard enough that if you were standing on solid ground you’d jump 80 feet into the air. Now in the real world, the elevator isn’t going to fall in a frictionless free-fall. So you probably really only need to be able to jump 40 feet into the air or so. And you have to time it so that you jump just before the elevator hits. Jump too soon and you’ll just splat yourself against the roof of the elevator as your vertical descent stops and the elevator continues to fall at a high rate of speed. So, um… yeah… I’m thinking there might be some practical issues with this approach. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/34 "2013-12-18T20:37:22Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > That said, I’ve seen a couple of sites which claim about 27 deaths a year in the US, mostly from inattentive people walking into open elevator shafts or the door closing safeties failing and people having body parts/halves severed…which frankly seems to me like a much more horrific way to die than simple falling. This reminds me of an incident from many years ago, when, for the only time in my life, I attended an opera. (My grandmother asked me to take her, that’s my only excuse.) We were milling about during intermission, when there was suddenly a great commotion, as paramedics entered and soon after wheeled a woman out on a gurney. The next day, the news reported that she was a member of the chorus and had got the long scarf of her costume trapped in closing elevator doors. She was strangled when the elevator ascended. I know, shades of Isadora Duncan. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/35 "2013-12-18T21:38:06Z")
Don’t most elevators have security cameras? They won’t help you survive but you could like moon it or something on the way down. Now that we’ve settled that, how would one survive a free falling escalator? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/36 "2013-12-18T23:00:14Z")
I was in an elevator that went into free fall once. I got on on the 12th floor and it started right afterwords, maybe around 10 ir 11. The emergency mechanical breaks kicked in and stopped me at the 5th floor. It all happened so fast I didn’t even have time to be scared shitless. I really doubt anyone could do much of anything in response, it just happens way too fast. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/37 "2013-12-18T23:19:05Z")
> [@Lare](#): > > See post #4 for a link to Cecil’s column. Sorry mate, i think you killed the links. The one to Cecil column doesn’t go anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/38 "2013-12-19T02:33:16Z")
_Sorry, I screwed up the links the first time. I think it’s right now._ _Thanks for the heads up, **stui magpie.** _ It’s pretty much out of your hands. There just isn’t much you can do in that circumstance except attempt to shriek a previously thought-out prayer for mercy from whatever deity you prefer… Or you could trust the safety devices in the elevator itself: [See item 9.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator#Elevator_safety) This was discussed by Cecil himself [in this column.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/189/in-a-falling-elevator-could-you-save-yourself-by-jumping-up-at-the-last-minute) I know it probably isn’t a help, but from a rational approach, elevators appear to be a safe way to travel. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/39 "2013-12-19T03:05:39Z")
What would happen if the elevator was full of water? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-freefall-inside-an-elevator/676486/40 "2013-12-19T04:36:52Z")
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