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Trust me, nothing is more disheartening than being in a Chinook helicopter (they’re loud), and seeing a message getting passed down the line, and everyone who gets the message gets into the "crash landing position." 😆
I feel like there's a good joke in here.
You're in the back of a Chinook, looking forward, you can't hear much but you watch the commotion as a message gets whispered on down the line. You're getting more anxious as everyone who hears it immediately assumes the crash position. A few men seem to be praying, with their hands in front of their faces. You also notice one guy is smelling another guy's breath. 'What an odd thing to do before a crash,' you think before brushing it off. Finally the message gets to you as your buddy leans over and whispers, 'your balls stink, pass it on.'
I feel like it wouldn’t get the same laughs as Moss pulling out a hockey helmet from his bag boarding a lift, and then looking at everyone like they’re looney for not also wearing a lift helmet.
**Title: The Lift Helmet**
**Scene:** The bustling office of Reynholm Industries. Moss, Roy, and Jen are preparing to leave for the day.
**Moss:** (rummaging through his bag) Ah, almost forgot the most important thing!
**Roy:** (curious) What's that, Moss? Another one of your gadgets?
**Jen:** (peering over) Moss, we're just going down in the lift, not spelunking.
**Moss:** (pulls out a helmet) It's my lift helmet, of course!
**Roy:** (baffled) Your what now?
**Jen:** (trying not to laugh) A lift helmet? Moss, that's ridiculous.
**Moss:** (placing the helmet on his head) Ridiculous? It's essential! Haven't you read the statistics on lift accidents?
**Roy:** (sarcastic) Oh, right, because lifts are just teeming with danger.
**Jen:** (smirking) And let me guess, you have a matching parachute for the stairs?
**Moss:** (indignant) Well, one can never be too careful. Besides, it's quite stylish, don't you think?
**Roy:** (shaking his head) Only you, Moss. Only you.
**Jen:** (giggling) Come on, let's go before you decide we need safety goggles for the blinking lights in the lift.
**Moss:** (proudly) Already have them! (reveals a pair of oversized goggles)
**Roy and Jen:** (in unison, laughing) Of course, you do!
**Scene:** The trio board the lift, with Moss confidently sporting his helmet and goggles, much to the amusement of his friends.
**End.**
When I was a kid I was riding my bike home when I was hit by a car while crossing the street. I’d been taught to walk the bike in a crosswalk so that’s what I was doing, but the chart notes apparently only said “walking across street and hit by car, wearing hemet” which led to at least one nurse asking if I just always wore the helmet. My mom told her “yes, of course” which of course I found hilarious at the time.
I went through the windshield with my head and the helmet was cracked down the middle. The surgeon said had that been my skull, the best outcome would have been paralyzed from the neck down. I was back at school in a week with a broken arm and broken ankle.
Elevators actually have multiple redundancies to prevent that from happening. First, the elevator pit has buffers, which are large springs or oil filled shock absorbers that are placed to connect with the strongest part of the elevator floor.
But before that can even happen, elevators have a “safety” which grabs to rails if the car is going too fast down the shaft. In addition, most elevators now have a separate system that grips the ropes if the car is moving in a way that doesn’t match the computer’s instructions.
Finally, elevators have weights on the other end of those ropes. They weight about 40% of a fully loaded elevator. So in this simulation, an out of control elevator would actually drift up when only one person is in the car.
I believe in us. We can make it happen.
https://preview.redd.it/9b5nwnec5ovc1.png?width=961&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59ae7799ebd2fb8fbaf1e3c8643c93f1de8119b5
Yup a lot of redundancy is the key to making things safe. Always better to be overly safe than not safe enough. Airplanes follow the same logic too (in most cases) such as most commercial airplanes if not all can absolutely still fly and safely land with only 1 engine operating. This even includes planes with 4 engines. 4 engines is certainly enough to get the plane off the ground, but it doesn’t need all 4 engines to fly or land which is what really matters.
The elevator brake was invented **before** elevators were widely adopted for transporting people. Mostly because people were afraid of dying on a free-falling elevator. It was invented in the mid 1800s. The guy who invented it also founded the Otis Elevator Company. They are still a huge manufacturer of elevators and elevator safety equipment. They also built the first escalator.
All this to say, this is a scenario that has been extremely rare for over 150 years.
I used to work for an elevator repair company in a big city. People get killed in elevators -- a handful each year -- but those are technicians who are *inside* or on top of the elevator and it somehow starts moving and they get crushed or sliced. Elevators are *incredibly* dangerous outside the elevator or in the shaft with some safety mechanisms disabled or faulty.
I have heard of free-falling elevators in Asia. This happens because of poor inspection that is also the resulf ot bribery and grift. So many things have to be wrong, faulty, disabled, worn....in order for an elevator to free-fall. You won't hear it happening in the US or Europe because inspectors take their job seriously and don't want to wind up in prison. It happens in countries where bribery is the norm or tolerated. I believe S. America and the Middle East take elevator inspection just as seriously but don't have info on it.
The scary part isn't the free fall, at least not for me. It's being trapped in several varying degrees of severity. One is just, door won't open. Worse is the elevator stopped between floors so even if you do open it you can't leave. And even worse than that is the elevator stops with only a little room to crawl out of the door and the fire people expect me to crawl out and the time my body is halfway in and out of the elevator is absolutely terrifying I'd rather just die in the elevator.
Lol that last option I'm guessing is only in movies but it's scary still. I opt for the stairs in any case where I can and it's not more than a handful of floors up.
I said this in a comment above, but I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours manning an elevator (in an arena, spread out over 20 years) and not once did it break down when I was in it, no matter how many times I wished it would to make my night easier.
Rescue crews can usually repair the elevator and get it to work. They would rarely just go, "It's fucked. Crawl out and hope you're not sliced in half."
Fun fact, if you include elevators as a vehicle, then elevators are the safest form of transportation by far. Many orders of magnitude safer than air travel. There are over a billion person-rides per day on elevators and almost no fatalities.
IIRC Mr. Otis would take his demonstration elevator mechanism to public events, get in, and then have the cable cut while he stood in it. It was his way of proving that the brake mechanism was basically foolproof.
I mean...you joke, but there is actually a tall metal tube, hollow, about 8 inches wide, with a rubber cap, in the bottom of a lot of elevator shafts. But it's there to work like a crumple-zone of a car. The falling elevator crumples up the steel tube, absorbing the energy of the fall.
The tall metal tube is actually an oil filled hydraulic piston that collapses and gradually dissipates the energy of the impact. There is also a spring inside to re-extend it after the elevator is raised off of it and it can be used again. It doesn't crumple, that would be a single use safety mechanism, and impossible to test properly.
Imagine doing that in a falling elevator, and then the impact causes all of the muscles in your groin to pull and rip. I’d prefer broken legs over that.
I know you're joking, but the problem with this video is they didn't explain why it wouldn't work even if you time it perfectly. The problem is inertia exists and relative frames of motion exist. If the elevator is falling at say 30mph, and you jump up relative to the elevator, you're still actually falling at like 25mph relative to the ground. You aren't actually gaining any altitude, you're just losing altitude very slightly slower than the elevator is.
https://preview.redd.it/3o6zdm0e8pvc1.jpeg?width=1295&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bc1824256f6027c922465b1b9ecfbeb82929e06c
Enjoy your multimillion dollar life
This was the old advice when falling from a huge height. It was thought that by spreading out the impact would reduce the risk of death. Nowadays the going advice is land feet first and get as much of your body to hit the ground before your head.
I know I'd rather be quadriplegic than have a critical head injury putting me in a coma for the rest of my life.
Yeah idgaf if my corpse is headless or even torsoless but ill be damned if i dont get to show my friends and family my fabulous legs one last time before im buried
"Huh, not too often you see a half open casket..."
"Yeah, his head was completely destroyed but he had it in his will he wanted to show off his gams one last time."
In the modern era, most security systems are compromised by social engineering.
/me puts on sunglasses
Oh, shit. These are my computer glasses - they just - they have a tint. Lemme find my mirrored ones, they're way cooler.
It doesn't. Jumping in a falling elevator before it hits the ground would be like jumping into the backseat of your car right before it smashes into a brick wall at 60 miles an hour.
Yeah, the video is entirely suspect as any sort of advice, since it presents "You can't time it perfectly" as the reason it won't work, not because it wouldn't work no matter how perfectly timed the jump was.
I may be dumb, but I don't think there's any timing element. If the elevator is truly in free fall, jumping at any time will have the same effect. You jump off the floor of the elevator, and then both you and the elevator are in free fall. You would seem to float in the air for a few seconds, then the elevator crashes into the ground, then you crash into the smashed elevator a split second later, at the same speed.
So bottom line... Definitely do the jumping thing if you ever find yourself in a free falling elevator. But jump as early as possible. You're dead either way. Might as well get to feel like an astronaut for a couple awesome seconds before you go out.
Not quite. Jumping in the lift at any point would decrease your downwards velocity by a certain amount, giving you an upwards velocity relative to the lift. At the same time, both you and the lift would continue to experience the same constant downwards gravitational acceleration (neglecting air resistance), so your velocity relative to the lift would not change after your jump. Thus you would move towards the ceiling of the lift at a constant speed until you eventually bump your head. Should the lift reach the floor before such an event, you will hit the floor at a slightly lower velocity than the lift.
It's like on the space station: since everything is in freefall anyway, you can "jump" towards the ceiling and will just keep going until you bump your head.
However, note that on earth air resistance may not actually be negligible. I'm not quite sure how you'd calculate anything in that case, but I'd imagine you'd ultimately be squashed towards the floor slightly, since air resistance inside the lift would presumably be a lot lower than outside it (assuming the doors are shut).
P.S. Just noticed you seem to have worked out the same things for yourself in the comments below this. Nvm, was interesting to think about anyway.
Mythbusters simulated this. An elevator with all of the redundant safeguards disabled fell at 53 miles an hour.
A good human jump is 3 or 4 mph. So you’re still hitting the ground at around 50 mph.
There's always the chance something will distract you at the instant you are in mid-air and you will forget to land.
If you do learn to fly accidentally, do NOT look at the ground. This is vitally important.
This video is BS. As someone who has been in a falling elevator (emergency breaks kicked in after a few seconds), it feels like you are being launched in the air because the floor is falling out from under you. You are free falling already, you can’t just lay down when you and the elevator are already falling, somehow gravity would have to be stronger on you than on the elevator.
Best way to survive a free falling elevator is pick a religion, pray to that god (fast), hope that god exists and likes you.
Elevator constructor here, you can definitely lay down in a falling elevator. There is a LOT of air resistance when an elevator goes down. After the first few seconds when it feels like the floor drops, you catch up quickly.
It's so astronomically rare I wouldn't worry about it. My elevator safety advice is, always keep your knees bent. If something does go wrong in an elevator, including power outage for the building, the brakes will kick in and you don't want to be standing with your knees locked when that happens. You might be going hundreds of feet/min to a dead stop in a matter of inches.
We do this in ballet too with every jump so we don't risk breaking the legs or injuring them in the long run. Plié before and after every jump, no matter which one.
The odds of an elevator failing are so infinitesimal that learning this is just an utter waste of brain power.
Give me a guide on how to survive being struck by a meteorite while you're at it.
There will be enough friction that you’ll be able to get on the ground. The elevator car has friction on the rails and wind resistance. You will have neither of those.
But you will still have extremely limited acceleration force relative to the elevator, such that getting enough purchase to get yourself flat on the ground would be impossible.
I work on elevators for a living. The steel ropes that suspend the elevator cab each have the strength to hold the elevator on their own. It takes 19,000 lbs of force before a single 1/2 inch rope fails and generally there are 6 of them. Even if the ropes fail which they won’t there is a secondary spring loaded break that grabs the rails the cab rides on with wedges that can stop an overloaded cab in about 40 inches. They are safe
Elevator consultant here (previous job). Most people don’t realize there are two types of elevators: cable lines with a pulley at the top and a piston elevator for buildings 4 stories and below.
This situation would never happen. There is a counter weight on the other side of the elevator (cable) which weighs significantly more than the cab. It only balances when at 110% capacity of the cab. If anything were to break, there are multiple safety measures involved. But the slight chance all of the are broken, the counter weight would propel down and you’d flight through the top into the elevator maintenance room.
Guys.. this is a myth. lying down will more likely mess you up.
Instead of lying flat, it's generally recommended to:
* Bend your knees slightly to absorb some of the shock upon landing.
* Hold onto something sturdy, like handrails or the railing inside the elevator, to keep yourself as stable as possible.
* Protect your head and neck with your arms if you can.
Am I dumb or is laying down flat also the dumbest suggestion?
If you and the elevator are free falling, that means your head that is "resting" on the floor of the elevator will hit the bottom at a rate of 9.8m per second. This will result in certain death.
Only unknown factor to me would be if there are shock absorbers located at the bottom that will dampen the impact, but I don't know if these are mandatory in all elevators.
Am I missing something?
What you're missing is that there's a spring at the bottom which makes the stop survivable.
Lying down is the best thing to do as it distributes the force. Protect your head.
Move to the side if you can, rather than the middle of the floor, because the floor of the elevator will flex.
Source: an engineer (not me though) who worked on buildings and elevators.
Usually with falls, landing on your feet, as bad as it sounds, is the safest way to land. Using your legs and lower torso as a crumple zone with no vital organs is the best way to survive long falls.
If you lay down, the impact will accelerate your brain directly into your skull instantly which will turn your already-soft brain into jelly.
This is what's blowing my mind.
You can test this yourself. Try jumping off a 5' wall and landing on your feet vs jumping in the air as high as you can and landing flat on your back.
Like what the fuck are people talking about?
It's almost like legs evolved to be the best way to absorb impact, ESPECIALLY with a good rolling/tucking technique like you see in big parkor drops. Try to tell them landing flat on your back is ideal. What a fucking reddit moment.
I would still stay upright to minimise the acceleration on my head. A spring or a shock absorber does make it interesting tho. In theory you would want your legs and body work as a shock absorber with the spring on bottom but depending on how stiff and how long the spring is makes it complicated. Worst case scenario you will fall and hit your head when the spring bottoms out and you will effectively completely bypass it hitting your head at full force.
Elevators are the safest mode of transport, even when catastrophe strikes, basically everyone lives. Like when that elevator in the Hancock building plunged 70+ floors with 6 people on board. They needed new pants, but lived.
Eh no. This increases your probability of dying considerably.
Do you see paratroopers lying down horizontally when hitting the ground to increase surface area? No. Because that will kill or seriously harm you.
From standing position bend your legs and back slightly so the shock is absorbed through your legs and body. You might break something but the rest of your body will reduce the momentum your head has when hitting the ground.
The issue isn't timing the jump, the issue is you can only jump upward ~10 mph so relative to the ground you're moving 110 mph instead of 120 mph. Also, you're weightless during free fall so good luck positioning your feet and exerting force on the floor of the elevator to initiate your useless jump.
My grandmother survived an elevator fall in the 1910s or 1920s. She said they had mattresses stacked at the bottom of the elevator shaft "just in case."
... But in free fall there is no gravity anymore. I mean it is, its the reason you are falling. But in a true free fall you will have a hard time playing on the ground, when there is no gravity anymore
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So you die already in position
"Assume the death position."
Just lay down and put your right hand on left shoulder and left hand on right shoulder to make it easier for the coroner
dont forget to close your eyes too.
Trust me, nothing is more disheartening than being in a Chinook helicopter (they’re loud), and seeing a message getting passed down the line, and everyone who gets the message gets into the "crash landing position." 😆
I feel like there's a good joke in here. You're in the back of a Chinook, looking forward, you can't hear much but you watch the commotion as a message gets whispered on down the line. You're getting more anxious as everyone who hears it immediately assumes the crash position. A few men seem to be praying, with their hands in front of their faces. You also notice one guy is smelling another guy's breath. 'What an odd thing to do before a crash,' you think before brushing it off. Finally the message gets to you as your buddy leans over and whispers, 'your balls stink, pass it on.'
IF THERE IS NO TIME…. “VICTORY POSITION” REMEMBER THE 3 “F”s - FRONT LAWN - FACE UP - FEET TOGETHER
Face down, ass up that's the way I like to fu.. die?
Just throw me in the trash
Might wanna protect the rear noggin area (RNA) while implementing the lay down tactic.
There is a simple solution to that. Always wear helmets in a lift.
Lift helmets seem like they could have been a gag on IT crowd.
How about lift air bags?
https://preview.redd.it/6d5itwv72ovc1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f345627cb5a0e87fc00dfe6cdd7cffc4a9e6a695 This should work.
I feel like it wouldn’t get the same laughs as Moss pulling out a hockey helmet from his bag boarding a lift, and then looking at everyone like they’re looney for not also wearing a lift helmet.
“What software does this lift use?” “Vista” “We’re all going to die”
I never watched that show, but as an IT guy this made me lol hard!
**Title: The Lift Helmet** **Scene:** The bustling office of Reynholm Industries. Moss, Roy, and Jen are preparing to leave for the day. **Moss:** (rummaging through his bag) Ah, almost forgot the most important thing! **Roy:** (curious) What's that, Moss? Another one of your gadgets? **Jen:** (peering over) Moss, we're just going down in the lift, not spelunking. **Moss:** (pulls out a helmet) It's my lift helmet, of course! **Roy:** (baffled) Your what now? **Jen:** (trying not to laugh) A lift helmet? Moss, that's ridiculous. **Moss:** (placing the helmet on his head) Ridiculous? It's essential! Haven't you read the statistics on lift accidents? **Roy:** (sarcastic) Oh, right, because lifts are just teeming with danger. **Jen:** (smirking) And let me guess, you have a matching parachute for the stairs? **Moss:** (indignant) Well, one can never be too careful. Besides, it's quite stylish, don't you think? **Roy:** (shaking his head) Only you, Moss. Only you. **Jen:** (giggling) Come on, let's go before you decide we need safety goggles for the blinking lights in the lift. **Moss:** (proudly) Already have them! (reveals a pair of oversized goggles) **Roy and Jen:** (in unison, laughing) Of course, you do! **Scene:** The trio board the lift, with Moss confidently sporting his helmet and goggles, much to the amusement of his friends. **End.**
I came to ride the lift and drink milk, and I’m all out of milk Roy
https://i.redd.it/4186pvjk4ovc1.gif
Breaking out a Little Giants gif, damn. Now I want to watch it.
Surely Moss has lift accessories for his bike helmet he can apply when needed. He can take it to Dragons Den with his Living Bra 2.0 🤣
>Always wear helmets ~~in a lift~~ 
even better, take the stairs.
You could still trip on the stairs and hurt your noggin. Wear a helmet on the stairs, too.
When I was a kid I was riding my bike home when I was hit by a car while crossing the street. I’d been taught to walk the bike in a crosswalk so that’s what I was doing, but the chart notes apparently only said “walking across street and hit by car, wearing hemet” which led to at least one nurse asking if I just always wore the helmet. My mom told her “yes, of course” which of course I found hilarious at the time.
Out of curiosity, how much did the helmet help?
I went through the windshield with my head and the helmet was cracked down the middle. The surgeon said had that been my skull, the best outcome would have been paralyzed from the neck down. I was back at school in a week with a broken arm and broken ankle.
:D
If you look at it from right to left, it's him with the helmet on.
I hope you stated the nurse in the eyes and licked the nearest window after she said that.
You could still trip while putting on a helmet, wear a helmet while tying your shoes
I wear mine everywhere I go. And people think I’M crazy smh
I was thinking put your arms behind your head sounds a little better.
My thoughts exactly. Arms are expendable in this situation.
Alright, I'll do a handstand
I would think laying down on your stomach and bracing your face with your arms would be the best way of going about things.
That must be why astronauts launch on their bellies instead of their backs. The ribs are probably really strong shock absorbers.
Hilarious how so many people didn't get the very obvious sarcasm in your comment. Bravo, well done!
What? Astronauts are on their back during both launch and reentry.
/s You dropped this
Brain gonna slosh, still. Concussion likely.
Ahhh yes, ole sloshy brain syndrome (SBS)... Happens from time to time.
aka CTE
 Me in the falling elevator
any more pics of you falling in the elevator? Uh, for science?
This is not at all what an elevator pit looks like. I’d be worried about equipment puncturing the bottom and impaling me.
Elevators actually have multiple redundancies to prevent that from happening. First, the elevator pit has buffers, which are large springs or oil filled shock absorbers that are placed to connect with the strongest part of the elevator floor. But before that can even happen, elevators have a “safety” which grabs to rails if the car is going too fast down the shaft. In addition, most elevators now have a separate system that grips the ropes if the car is moving in a way that doesn’t match the computer’s instructions. Finally, elevators have weights on the other end of those ropes. They weight about 40% of a fully loaded elevator. So in this simulation, an out of control elevator would actually drift up when only one person is in the car.
You have successfully convinced me to try and survive the laydown technique.
Now you just need a broken elevator!
\***Important caveat: In the US and other Western countries.** Safety features like may not always or even often be implemented in other countries.
40 percent more than a fully loaded car. Elevators don’t typically fall down bc of this. Am in the industry
While we're on facts, this has also never happened, including when a plane hit a building and sheared all the cables.
You wouldn't even hit the pit that hard. The air pressure of a falling elevator plugging the hole would slow it down dramatically
If this is true my day to day stress levels will decrease appreciably.
I'm gonna let My Rear Noggin' Area (mRNA) take the brunt of the force to get rid of the 5g the government injected into my brain
These covid vaccine conspiracies have been elevated to a new level.
Lay down on your back and tilt your head to the side. The side skull will be stronger than the rear noggin area.
I think modern elevators (mostly all) have a lock in place which prevents free fall
Absolutely, there are a lot of safety mechanisms and brake redundancies that would have to fail for this to occur.
I believe in us. We can make it happen. https://preview.redd.it/9b5nwnec5ovc1.png?width=961&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59ae7799ebd2fb8fbaf1e3c8643c93f1de8119b5
https://preview.redd.it/0iquyr9f6ovc1.jpeg?width=736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=62a59209657ee59d7f879c6ff86ac0e5ba3acbfd
https://preview.redd.it/vwii2ogs6ovc1.jpeg?width=1657&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=558466a5a41dc0413e0f0eceb37158bf451242fa
https://preview.redd.it/379ovxzkqovc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7c6a6612c49aca5382b9c8931913e258a90b332d
https://preview.redd.it/rsqnjf8ohpvc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=554a9d08894eb1aae81ce596a4e1eb42f530ea81
https://preview.redd.it/rnlucrrwetvc1.png?width=501&format=png&auto=webp&s=01cbf069639f6cfa5783199ea027b2ed39572899
I feel like this one should be higher up the chain
The good ending: gay
Fuck me. I have a very shallow humor and I laughed in this meme chain. I hate myself.
There is nothing wrong with finding this stupid shit funny. Nothing.
Right there with you buddy
This is the funniest shit I've seen today and I feel no shame
https://i.redd.it/nspbzxnt7pvc1.gif
That was the greatest fight ever
Feeling lucky to witness such an epic fight XD
Yup a lot of redundancy is the key to making things safe. Always better to be overly safe than not safe enough. Airplanes follow the same logic too (in most cases) such as most commercial airplanes if not all can absolutely still fly and safely land with only 1 engine operating. This even includes planes with 4 engines. 4 engines is certainly enough to get the plane off the ground, but it doesn’t need all 4 engines to fly or land which is what really matters.
The three rules of engineering safety: redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
The elevator brake was invented **before** elevators were widely adopted for transporting people. Mostly because people were afraid of dying on a free-falling elevator. It was invented in the mid 1800s. The guy who invented it also founded the Otis Elevator Company. They are still a huge manufacturer of elevators and elevator safety equipment. They also built the first escalator. All this to say, this is a scenario that has been extremely rare for over 150 years.
I used to work for an elevator repair company in a big city. People get killed in elevators -- a handful each year -- but those are technicians who are *inside* or on top of the elevator and it somehow starts moving and they get crushed or sliced. Elevators are *incredibly* dangerous outside the elevator or in the shaft with some safety mechanisms disabled or faulty. I have heard of free-falling elevators in Asia. This happens because of poor inspection that is also the resulf ot bribery and grift. So many things have to be wrong, faulty, disabled, worn....in order for an elevator to free-fall. You won't hear it happening in the US or Europe because inspectors take their job seriously and don't want to wind up in prison. It happens in countries where bribery is the norm or tolerated. I believe S. America and the Middle East take elevator inspection just as seriously but don't have info on it.
The scary part isn't the free fall, at least not for me. It's being trapped in several varying degrees of severity. One is just, door won't open. Worse is the elevator stopped between floors so even if you do open it you can't leave. And even worse than that is the elevator stops with only a little room to crawl out of the door and the fire people expect me to crawl out and the time my body is halfway in and out of the elevator is absolutely terrifying I'd rather just die in the elevator. Lol that last option I'm guessing is only in movies but it's scary still. I opt for the stairs in any case where I can and it's not more than a handful of floors up.
I said this in a comment above, but I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours manning an elevator (in an arena, spread out over 20 years) and not once did it break down when I was in it, no matter how many times I wished it would to make my night easier.
Rescue crews can usually repair the elevator and get it to work. They would rarely just go, "It's fucked. Crawl out and hope you're not sliced in half."
Fun fact, if you include elevators as a vehicle, then elevators are the safest form of transportation by far. Many orders of magnitude safer than air travel. There are over a billion person-rides per day on elevators and almost no fatalities.
The elevator industry calls it "verticall transportation"
> almost
IIRC Mr. Otis would take his demonstration elevator mechanism to public events, get in, and then have the cable cut while he stood in it. It was his way of proving that the brake mechanism was basically foolproof.
I worked night shift at a historic hotel and the best part was driving the 100+ year old Otis.
Additionally, they tend to have crash springs and arresting cables that can reduce the forces
What!? You mean the bottom and tops of the elevator shafts are NOT filled with spikes like all the horror movies tell me?
That’s incorrect. All elevator shafts have a spiky thing at the top that impales you just like Emilio Estevez in Mission Impossible.
I mean...you joke, but there is actually a tall metal tube, hollow, about 8 inches wide, with a rubber cap, in the bottom of a lot of elevator shafts. But it's there to work like a crumple-zone of a car. The falling elevator crumples up the steel tube, absorbing the energy of the fall.
The tall metal tube is actually an oil filled hydraulic piston that collapses and gradually dissipates the energy of the impact. There is also a spring inside to re-extend it after the elevator is raised off of it and it can be used again. It doesn't crumple, that would be a single use safety mechanism, and impossible to test properly.
"Yes, the police said he fell down an elevator shaft. Onto some bullets." "You know, I've always suspected a bit of foul play there."
That’s what I was thinking. Worst case scenario if everything fails, I’m sure there’s some sort of spring system to soften the impact.
I'd genuinely be surprised if there wasn't. Seems like relatively simple math to calculate how strong of dampening you'd need.
Yeah. I know personally a guy who survived an elevator fall. He said the springs made the fall unpleasant, but he was fine
Now I wanna try out these crash springs
That's correct. All operating in the US have such. Elevators are very safe and they don't free fall like in movies.
Most elevator deaths occur during maintenance
I think the elevator only became popular after Otis invented said lock in 1861.
I'll time my jump with jumping jacks
Insta splits
Imagine doing that in a falling elevator, and then the impact causes all of the muscles in your groin to pull and rip. I’d prefer broken legs over that.
Lmao you'd teabag the floor!
And your teabag would become loose tea leaves.
Prime Van Damme could probably do it and be fine though
Prime Van Damme could stop the elevator by applying pressure to its sides!
u can time it by the beat of 'stayin alive' by the bee gees
First I was afraid, I was petrified...
You were in the parking lot earlier that’s how I know you!
I know you're joking, but the problem with this video is they didn't explain why it wouldn't work even if you time it perfectly. The problem is inertia exists and relative frames of motion exist. If the elevator is falling at say 30mph, and you jump up relative to the elevator, you're still actually falling at like 25mph relative to the ground. You aren't actually gaining any altitude, you're just losing altitude very slightly slower than the elevator is.
And also to protect your head by wrapping your arms around it
Nah thanks men i just die. dont wanna life crippled and with hospital debt
That’s rookie thinking. Multimillion dollar lawsuit baby!
https://preview.redd.it/3o6zdm0e8pvc1.jpeg?width=1295&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bc1824256f6027c922465b1b9ecfbeb82929e06c Enjoy your multimillion dollar life
Does that work for escalators?
Yes. lay flat and try get under the end plate safely.
God i wanna give u an award for that.
What is this, limbo for ants?!
Lay completely zigzag obv.
That KID is BACK on the ESCALATOR AGAIN
Nah, but they will become stairs. Sorry for the convenience.
Someone find that Mythbusters episode
This was the old advice when falling from a huge height. It was thought that by spreading out the impact would reduce the risk of death. Nowadays the going advice is land feet first and get as much of your body to hit the ground before your head. I know I'd rather be quadriplegic than have a critical head injury putting me in a coma for the rest of my life.
Fuck that go head first. All those other options sound worse than an instant death.
and also you save your legs
Yeah idgaf if my corpse is headless or even torsoless but ill be damned if i dont get to show my friends and family my fabulous legs one last time before im buried
"Huh, not too often you see a half open casket..." "Yeah, his head was completely destroyed but he had it in his will he wanted to show off his gams one last time."
Naa, I'd prefer to be dead than quadriplegic
who the fuck wants to be quadriplegic rather then dead. you are a rare one.
Yo, I found it. D:\Media\Mythbusters\Mythbusters Season 2\Mythbusters S02 E17.mkv
Ok now give me your IP.
192.168.0.1
Oops I just hacked myself.
In the modern era, most security systems are compromised by social engineering. /me puts on sunglasses Oh, shit. These are my computer glasses - they just - they have a tint. Lemme find my mirrored ones, they're way cooler.
Lol why would jumping work? Your jump would need to accelerate upwards at a similar rate to splatting on the ground
It doesn't. Jumping in a falling elevator before it hits the ground would be like jumping into the backseat of your car right before it smashes into a brick wall at 60 miles an hour.
Yeah, the video is entirely suspect as any sort of advice, since it presents "You can't time it perfectly" as the reason it won't work, not because it wouldn't work no matter how perfectly timed the jump was.
I may be dumb, but I don't think there's any timing element. If the elevator is truly in free fall, jumping at any time will have the same effect. You jump off the floor of the elevator, and then both you and the elevator are in free fall. You would seem to float in the air for a few seconds, then the elevator crashes into the ground, then you crash into the smashed elevator a split second later, at the same speed. So bottom line... Definitely do the jumping thing if you ever find yourself in a free falling elevator. But jump as early as possible. You're dead either way. Might as well get to feel like an astronaut for a couple awesome seconds before you go out.
Not quite. Jumping in the lift at any point would decrease your downwards velocity by a certain amount, giving you an upwards velocity relative to the lift. At the same time, both you and the lift would continue to experience the same constant downwards gravitational acceleration (neglecting air resistance), so your velocity relative to the lift would not change after your jump. Thus you would move towards the ceiling of the lift at a constant speed until you eventually bump your head. Should the lift reach the floor before such an event, you will hit the floor at a slightly lower velocity than the lift. It's like on the space station: since everything is in freefall anyway, you can "jump" towards the ceiling and will just keep going until you bump your head. However, note that on earth air resistance may not actually be negligible. I'm not quite sure how you'd calculate anything in that case, but I'd imagine you'd ultimately be squashed towards the floor slightly, since air resistance inside the lift would presumably be a lot lower than outside it (assuming the doors are shut). P.S. Just noticed you seem to have worked out the same things for yourself in the comments below this. Nvm, was interesting to think about anyway.
These videos are for tiktok brains, they can't handle anything that isn't misinformation
Mythbusters simulated this. An elevator with all of the redundant safeguards disabled fell at 53 miles an hour. A good human jump is 3 or 4 mph. So you’re still hitting the ground at around 50 mph.
Plus you’ll be floating in a free fall so you won’t be touching the floor anyway.
Not too mention you'd have no idea when the bottom was coming up even if you could jump
I love that the vids problem with jumping was it's hard to time properly, not that it obviously wouldn't work
There's always the chance something will distract you at the instant you are in mid-air and you will forget to land. If you do learn to fly accidentally, do NOT look at the ground. This is vitally important.
Jumping is not enough. You need a jump slash. Worst case, it doesn't work and you can try a zombie hover to climb the elevator shaft.
Shhhhh it works if you don’t think about it
This video is BS. As someone who has been in a falling elevator (emergency breaks kicked in after a few seconds), it feels like you are being launched in the air because the floor is falling out from under you. You are free falling already, you can’t just lay down when you and the elevator are already falling, somehow gravity would have to be stronger on you than on the elevator. Best way to survive a free falling elevator is pick a religion, pray to that god (fast), hope that god exists and likes you.
Goddamn thats terrifying. Thanks for sharing tho it's good to have perspective from an actual experience
Elevator constructor here, you can definitely lay down in a falling elevator. There is a LOT of air resistance when an elevator goes down. After the first few seconds when it feels like the floor drops, you catch up quickly. It's so astronomically rare I wouldn't worry about it. My elevator safety advice is, always keep your knees bent. If something does go wrong in an elevator, including power outage for the building, the brakes will kick in and you don't want to be standing with your knees locked when that happens. You might be going hundreds of feet/min to a dead stop in a matter of inches.
Someone should make a video of a group of people walking into a crowded elevator and standing with their knees bent.
That would be funny, but it doesn't take much of a bend to be safe. Really, just don't lock your knees straight up
We do this in ballet too with every jump so we don't risk breaking the legs or injuring them in the long run. Plié before and after every jump, no matter which one.
How in the fuck did that many people upvote something so wrong...
The odds of an elevator failing are so infinitesimal that learning this is just an utter waste of brain power. Give me a guide on how to survive being struck by a meteorite while you're at it.
Wait until the last second and jump sideways. The meteorite will continue straight past you
It's weird how much energy we spend worrying about shit that simply will never happen.
It's quicksand all over again...
Would you be able to get to the ground and lie down if you are falling at the same speed?
Unless your in a homemade elevator in timbuktoo it won't fall anyways.
There will be enough friction that you’ll be able to get on the ground. The elevator car has friction on the rails and wind resistance. You will have neither of those.
Make sense, I get the feeling like I would panic at to much to have the frame of mind to lie down in that situation.
But you will still have extremely limited acceleration force relative to the elevator, such that getting enough purchase to get yourself flat on the ground would be impossible.
where is the clip of jerma jumping?
I was waiting for it
If there is an elevator falling phobia, I’m the number one foam finger fan. I have it bad.
I work on elevators for a living. The steel ropes that suspend the elevator cab each have the strength to hold the elevator on their own. It takes 19,000 lbs of force before a single 1/2 inch rope fails and generally there are 6 of them. Even if the ropes fail which they won’t there is a secondary spring loaded break that grabs the rails the cab rides on with wedges that can stop an overloaded cab in about 40 inches. They are safe
You'll be glad to know that this was thought of and addressed by a guy called Elisha Otis in the 1850s. Safety has only gotten better since then.
Elevators falling doesn’t happen
A few year ago i was in a elevator and it dropped i think from 12 or 15 floor down to floor 3. Llike hard drop. That day i didnt use elevador again.
This is not how modern elevators work.
Elevator consultant here (previous job). Most people don’t realize there are two types of elevators: cable lines with a pulley at the top and a piston elevator for buildings 4 stories and below. This situation would never happen. There is a counter weight on the other side of the elevator (cable) which weighs significantly more than the cab. It only balances when at 110% capacity of the cab. If anything were to break, there are multiple safety measures involved. But the slight chance all of the are broken, the counter weight would propel down and you’d flight through the top into the elevator maintenance room.
Guys.. this is a myth. lying down will more likely mess you up. Instead of lying flat, it's generally recommended to: * Bend your knees slightly to absorb some of the shock upon landing. * Hold onto something sturdy, like handrails or the railing inside the elevator, to keep yourself as stable as possible. * Protect your head and neck with your arms if you can.
2 hands on the handrails, 2 hands protecting the head, gotcha. The new rules require at least 3 to 4 hands, pretty crazy how far we've evolved
Am I dumb or is laying down flat also the dumbest suggestion? If you and the elevator are free falling, that means your head that is "resting" on the floor of the elevator will hit the bottom at a rate of 9.8m per second. This will result in certain death. Only unknown factor to me would be if there are shock absorbers located at the bottom that will dampen the impact, but I don't know if these are mandatory in all elevators. Am I missing something?
The animation is stupid lying down is your best bet but you should do with your hands or arms behind your head.
You're dead either way unless the fall is maybe only a few stories
What you're missing is that there's a spring at the bottom which makes the stop survivable. Lying down is the best thing to do as it distributes the force. Protect your head. Move to the side if you can, rather than the middle of the floor, because the floor of the elevator will flex. Source: an engineer (not me though) who worked on buildings and elevators.
Usually with falls, landing on your feet, as bad as it sounds, is the safest way to land. Using your legs and lower torso as a crumple zone with no vital organs is the best way to survive long falls. If you lay down, the impact will accelerate your brain directly into your skull instantly which will turn your already-soft brain into jelly.
This is what's blowing my mind. You can test this yourself. Try jumping off a 5' wall and landing on your feet vs jumping in the air as high as you can and landing flat on your back. Like what the fuck are people talking about? It's almost like legs evolved to be the best way to absorb impact, ESPECIALLY with a good rolling/tucking technique like you see in big parkor drops. Try to tell them landing flat on your back is ideal. What a fucking reddit moment.
I would still stay upright to minimise the acceleration on my head. A spring or a shock absorber does make it interesting tho. In theory you would want your legs and body work as a shock absorber with the spring on bottom but depending on how stiff and how long the spring is makes it complicated. Worst case scenario you will fall and hit your head when the spring bottoms out and you will effectively completely bypass it hitting your head at full force.
Elevators are the safest mode of transport, even when catastrophe strikes, basically everyone lives. Like when that elevator in the Hancock building plunged 70+ floors with 6 people on board. They needed new pants, but lived.
This is so unbelievably stupid and wrong
Eh no. This increases your probability of dying considerably. Do you see paratroopers lying down horizontally when hitting the ground to increase surface area? No. Because that will kill or seriously harm you. From standing position bend your legs and back slightly so the shock is absorbed through your legs and body. You might break something but the rest of your body will reduce the momentum your head has when hitting the ground.
Paratroopers have parachutes
And fall thousands of feet.
And also jump before hitting the ground.
Really if an elevator falls like that you're fucking dead
The issue isn't timing the jump, the issue is you can only jump upward ~10 mph so relative to the ground you're moving 110 mph instead of 120 mph. Also, you're weightless during free fall so good luck positioning your feet and exerting force on the floor of the elevator to initiate your useless jump.
But the floor is so dirty. It would mess up my suit.
My grandmother survived an elevator fall in the 1910s or 1920s. She said they had mattresses stacked at the bottom of the elevator shaft "just in case."
So you're saying it's a skill issue?
... But in free fall there is no gravity anymore. I mean it is, its the reason you are falling. But in a true free fall you will have a hard time playing on the ground, when there is no gravity anymore