# Trapped in a lift hurtling to the ground...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 24, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154 "2003-06-24T22:11:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mrsface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrsface)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/1 "2003-06-24T22:11:47Z")
Whenever I’m in a lift (US elevator), I inevitably start speculating about the cable breaking and the lift hurtling to the floor. The next thought, and I know this is quite common, is that if I were to jump at exactly the right moment, just before impact, I would be OK because I’d be in the air.
So, forgetting for a minute the unlikeliness of being able to calculate the right moment to jump, would this strategy work in theory?
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/2 "2003-06-24T22:14:43Z")
Nope. The best you could hope for is to offset the velocity of the elevator at the time of impact by your upwards velocity, but since the elevator will be falling downwards at a far greater rate than you can jump up, the difference will be minimal.
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### Author:  [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/3 "2003-06-24T22:15:30Z")
In short: [no](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_205a.html).
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### Author:  [@mrsface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrsface)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/4 "2003-06-24T22:31:50Z")
Damn… another cunning plan bites the dust
I suppose this is a common fantasy because it is just about the only solution the brain can find to the broken lift scenario
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### Author:  [@dead0man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dead0man)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/5 "2003-06-24T22:48:13Z")
Elevators DON’T just plummet to the ground.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/6 "2003-06-24T22:58:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by dead0man \*
> \*\*Elevators DON’T just plummet to the ground. \*\*
They did before Mr. Otis.
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### Author:  [@mrsface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrsface)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/7 "2003-06-24T23:48:46Z")
PS: **QED** - is there anything in the universe you don’t know? (respect…)
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### Author:  [@JerseyDiamond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyDiamond)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/8 "2003-06-24T23:57:15Z")
Would you be safer standing up in the falling car, or lying flat on the floor? Maybe even jumping?
Is one better than the other?
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/9 "2003-06-25T00:00:22Z")
Depends on how fast the car was falling. My intuition says laying down will result in the least damage, but I think if the elevator is falling fast enough, you’re SOL.
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### Author:  [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/10 "2003-06-25T00:11:29Z")
I’d think standing would be the best. If you’re lying down, your head + upper torso is guaranteed to take on the full force of the impact. If you’re standing, its possible your disintegrating legs could act as springs of sort.
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### Author:  [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/11 "2003-06-25T00:52:36Z")
Read this link about Elevator Safety.
[http://www.eesf.org/safetrid/elevhist.htm](http://www.eesf.org/safetrid/elevhist.htm)
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### Author:  [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/12 "2003-06-25T01:07:32Z")
No, jumping _won’t_ save you, but it _will_ give you something to concentrate on as you hurtle to your demise.
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### Author:  [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/13 "2003-06-25T02:17:14Z")
This question gets asked all the time - lay down dude! It’ll spread the force over a larger area.
I recall a case where the drum brake on an elevator got grease on it or something, and started falling slower than the centripetal emergency brakes on the elevator would trigger at. Nobody lay down, and everyone had sprained knees. Just pretend you’re falling w/o the elevator, and you’ll see the right frame of reference.
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### Author:  [@Mini-Thud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mini-Thud)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/14 "2003-06-25T02:24:14Z")
Yes, the force would be spread out over a larger area, but acting on the idea of surviving alone (meaning all you want to do is survive, regardless of the injuries you’ll get) I would think that standing would be the best… because then you’re legs will take all the damage. If your laying down… when that elevator comes to a hard stop isn’t your head going to SLAM against the ground?
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/15 "2003-06-25T07:45:08Z")
I would point out that it is pretty much impossible for an elevator car to freely fall like that because of the design. The tension on the cables from which it hangs is what keeps a brake disengaged. The instant the tension on the cables is removed, the springs held back by that tension will apply the brakes and the elevator car will be immobilized where ever that happened.
No matter how much you fantasize it just doesn’t happen. What does happen is people flling into empty elevators shafts. Better watch your step.
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### Author:  [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/16 "2003-06-25T07:56:04Z")
Nope - your head is already on the ground. No slamming involved. If you want to get more of the elevator involved, there are usually (always?) springs or crushable devices at the bottom of the shaft as a last-resort type thing, plus a perhaps neglegable amount of friction with the shaft rails.
Heh. [Appeal to authority](http://extratv.warnerbros.com/reframe.html?http://extratv.warnerbros.com/dailynews/pop/05_01/05_10b.html) 🙂
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### Author:  [@mrsface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrsface)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/17 "2003-06-25T09:31:27Z")
If there was a hook or something on the ceiling of the lift, would it help to hang on to that, given that the floor will hit the ground first and absorb more of the impact?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/18 "2003-06-25T09:38:55Z")
Not really; it would simply be wrenched out of your hands when the lift stopped (but your body wanted to carry on moving).
Unless the walls of the lift car crumpled in such a way as to soften the impact, but I believe this is negligible, given that we’re still talking about **very** rapid deceleration.
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### Author:  [@mrsface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrsface)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/19 "2003-06-25T09:40:35Z")
If there was a hook or something on the ceiling of the lift, would it help to hang on to that, given that the floor will hit the ground first and absorb more of the impact?
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### Author:  [@mrsface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrsface)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/20 "2003-06-25T09:42:35Z")
Double-post sorry - pressed the back button…
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