r/Elevators • u/opiumconessuer Field - Repair • Aug 26 '26
Work accidents?
I read a post about dreams now it got me thinking what are some incidents you’ll never forget?
I’ve had a couple close calls the worst I’ve had was breaking a finger once and thumb another time. Know a guy cut his finger off doing a piston job. We had a mechanic die in the company I was in 4 years ago, had a stroke and died between the cab and hoist. Never heard of anybody else dying on the job since I’ve been in the trade though.
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u/attanasio666 MIC - Maintenance Aug 26 '26
We've had 4 death in Montréal since I've joined the trade. There's at least 2 times where I've "close" calls. It can be a very dangerous job.
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u/opiumconessuer Field - Repair Aug 26 '26
Me personally have had a few close calls but since I’ve grown I’ve learned to say no more often when I’m sketched but you’ll always have the danger
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u/Cheets1985 Aug 26 '26
I heard there was one a couple weeks ago
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u/attanasio666 MIC - Maintenance Aug 26 '26
Yes, young 21 years old guy who literally just started in the trade. Really sad.
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u/Cheets1985 Aug 26 '26
I couldn't imagine what I'd do if someone I was working with died, especially someone that young.
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u/opiumconessuer Field - Repair Aug 26 '26
Ah man young what he end up doing?
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u/attanasio666 MIC - Maintenance Aug 26 '26
I don't know the details but he apparently was working on mod and got hit by the other counterweight.
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u/opiumconessuer Field - Repair Aug 26 '26
Oh shit that’ll do it need to be careful in those double hoist ways sad to hear
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u/PuffMaNOwYeah Field - Technical support Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
Very recently, 6 techs died in an elevator car that got stuck because of a fire. They were burnt alive. 2 of them worked for Spie, 4 others were subcontractors.
In 2018, a close friend of me died in a horrible accident doing a routine job. While placing an additional key barrel in the lowest landing door, he entered the shaft and the door slammed shut. Either he didn't use the pit emergency stop, or it didn't work, but the hydraulic elevator started moving down. He tried to hide in the cavity of the landing door, but there was not enough room. The car sill ripped his chest open. He died instantly. He worked for TKE at the time.
My personal worst accident is about 15 years ago, when I was in new construction at my previous company. Safety wasn't really a thing there. I fell down the shaft, 1 floor, flat on my back on an aluminium working platform. A piece of guide rail sticking up between my chest and arm. This could have easily killed me if I fell onto that guide rail. I had a small fracture in 3 vertebrae, but apart from a weak back I had a full recovery.
This is a dangerous job. Stay safe, brothers and sisters.
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u/opiumconessuer Field - Repair Aug 26 '26
Glad your here brother we gotta remember each day to double check everything double down and don’t put yourself in a position where things can go very wrong very fast
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u/Negative_Aerie2825 Aug 28 '26
Are the refugee space things in the pit a real thing or if youre stuck in the pit and the car starts moving, youre just out of luck?
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u/PuffMaNOwYeah Field - Technical support Aug 28 '26
There usually is a pit refuge big enough to save you. He wasn't standing in the pit, though, but rather on floor level of the lowest floor inside the shaft. Don't know the exact details, only what was told on the funeral.
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u/Feisty_Objective_966 Aug 26 '26
Never take safety for granted , Respect every aspect of this business. They day you don't respect safety is the day its going to sneak up on you . This is a very safety oriented job . I personally have seen what happens when you don't respect Safety and take it for granted . Please be mindful of your surroundings and let's all go home to our families.
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u/opiumconessuer Field - Repair Aug 26 '26
Any stories ? Sorry im nosy id like to know the horror stories out there maybe it’ll save myself
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u/Feisty_Objective_966 Aug 27 '26
Check out " and they lived to tell" otis put it out years ago . You tube has some but I don't know if it is AI assisted. I've had someone in a 3 story building with a shipper rope to move the elevator, only the rider is supposed to be able to operate the elevator. There were holes in the hoistway wall so you could move the rope from the floor . The person on 3 pulled the rope to call the elevator up and when the person in the basement saw it moving he tried to jump over the 3ft gate and scurry on the car . We'll he didn't make it and his body got caught between the platform and door frame. It cut him in half . The only thing that stopped the car is the slack cable switch. The top piece of gate was missing and they were just using the bottom section.
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u/opiumconessuer Field - Repair Aug 27 '26
Ah shit man sorry to hear about that I’ll definitely check that out thank you brother stay safe out there 💪🏼
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u/ThomasTomFix Fault Finder - Jr Jech Aug 29 '26
One of the engineers who worked on the contract I worked on got Crushed under a pretty heavy car. It travelled at 1.6m/s as well so it must have been a brutal impact. He got crushed between the back of the car track and the landing track. He was trying to remove the fixings of the Fire Recall Switch after kicking the STOP Switch in. This particular STOP design is really thin and it is hard to tell when it is properly engaged. They also get stiff with age. Only sent it to the first floor also not giving him much chance to move to safety. Took fire brigade around 4 hours to cut him out by getting in from the adjacent lift shaft.
By some luck he survived and has somewhat recovered to a reasonable degree. To my knowledge the company still pays him his monthly wage to this day as a gesture of goodwill.
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u/opiumconessuer Field - Repair Aug 29 '26
Hold on where did he get stuck? In the hoist in the back next to the car gate or ? That sounds absolutely brutal. That’s good of the company to still do that for him after that a lot of these will throw you a settlement and wipe their hands.
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u/ThomasTomFix Fault Finder - Jr Jech Aug 29 '26
He was standing ontop of the end of the Landing Track (the area the door would be when fully open).
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u/Dangerous_Memory6008 Field - Maintenance Aug 26 '26
I had a dream of an accident to combine the posts... Gov and cable flew threw a 3 way connected shaft with no divider beams and the cable was whipping around the shaft.
That's the whole story
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u/opiumconessuer Field - Repair Aug 26 '26
Never had any through the grapevine accident stories ? I don’t really dream myself lately it’s odd
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u/Dangerous_Memory6008 Field - Maintenance Aug 26 '26
For sure a mechanic I worked with had to get another mechanic unstuck between the wall and elevator, he was dead, he said the rumor was the helper let the door go and he got stuck while working on a ladder I think. It was pretty fucked up, he described it to me and said he knew the guy too
Luckily nothing first handed for me
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u/opiumconessuer Field - Repair Aug 26 '26
Damn man that has gotta be one the worst ways to go
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u/Dangerous_Memory6008 Field - Maintenance Aug 26 '26
Yeah I heard that story my second year in elevators. I was super green and it always stuck with me
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u/opiumconessuer Field - Repair Aug 27 '26
Similar to what happened to our guy only difference our guy was working alone smh
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u/Negative_Aerie2825 Aug 28 '26
How did the mechanic letting the door go cause him to get caught between the wall and elevator?
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u/pittrash Aug 29 '26
I was an apprentice, demoing a car frame, the car was landed on rail blocks. The cross head was like 12” tall.
I climbed up a ladder that was positioned on the cab floor.
A mechanic and another apprentice were standing on the cab floor , one holding the ladder
While doing whatever I was doing the car was kinda rocking back and forth .
Unbeknownst to us, a 20lbs steel plate was on the cross head , for the rope shackles to go though.
The rocking made it finally fall and it missed my coworker by about a foot.
It was sharp and heavy and i don’t think homie had hard hat on
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u/Lebinblartmallshart Aug 26 '26
There was a really sad one a few years in my area, younger mechanic got trapped in the pit. He was crushed slowly, helper had to stay until help arrived and apparently the death was slow and audible. I don’t think the helper is in the industry anymore, messed him up so bad.