# Woman killed in "freak elevator accident" - how did the elevator fall? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 16, 2020, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-killed-in-freak-elevator-accident-how-did-the-elevator-fall/920794 "2020-09-16T22:19:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-killed-in-freak-elevator-accident-how-did-the-elevator-fall/920794/41 "2020-09-18T17:57:08Z")
I’ve seen these in a couple of movies (including the fully restored version of **Metropolis** The “paternoster” scene is in the apartment building, and The Tall Man gets off just as Freder is getting on, so they don’t see each other. I don’t know if the etymology has been fully researched, but the story I’d heard is that it was called a “paternoster” because riders would be so afraid of some accident happening that they’d say the Our Father. (If the name was based on the rosary, I’d expect it to be called a “Hail Many”, or its equivalent in some other language, since the contiguous beads are for repeated sayings of that prayer. ---
**Author:** ![Snipe70e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Snipe70e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snipe70e)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-killed-in-freak-elevator-accident-how-did-the-elevator-fall/920794/42 "2020-09-19T00:53:14Z")
Between doors. the outer door moves with the inner door. The inner door door had the door motor. The outer door does not have a door motor and by itself could not trap anyone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-killed-in-freak-elevator-accident-how-did-the-elevator-fall/920794.md?page=2)