[masraum]

Originally Posted by 125shifter

I don't know about deaths due to the cables failing, but there have been some some broken bones and deaths due to elevator accidents in Houston in the last few years from cars dropping several stories and doors closing but the car still moving. And these were not in run down buildings.

Yeah, my building (for the broken bones not the decapitation). Huge all granite on the outside, high tech water and air filtration to the entire building completed in 2003.

I can tell you of 1 elevator death as a result of mechanical weirdness, and injuries related to elevator freefall NOT associated with a broken cable.

Cause of Elevator Accidents Still unknown

Deborah DeRouen began describing the Dec. 9 elevator accident that left her with compound leg fractures and a fractured vertebra.
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She was severely injured when an elevator at the 717 Texas building at Texas and Milam in downtown Houston precipitously fell from the 27th floor to the 23rd floor. She described the descent as an initial “freefall” that ended as quickly as it began when an emergency brake kicked in.

Although elevator accidents are rare, this was not the only one at the 33-story building in recent weeks. Two people were injured Monday when a nearby elevator in the same elevator bank dropped suddenly from the 27th floor to the 25th floor.

Some employees of the upper floors at 717 Texas are so spooked by the accidents that they have taken to walking down more than 20 stories to reach the first floor.

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“I pressed one, and it started free-falling really fast,” DeRouen said.

Sent airborne during the descent, she slammed hard into the floor when the elevator suddenly halted at the 23rd floor.

Her tibia bone tore through her leg between her knee and ankle, creating a long wound. Her ankle and toes on her left leg were fractured.

The elevator door wouldn’t open, so employees on the 23rd floor could not come to her aid as she pierced the air with screams, Boutros said. They kept her talking, though, worried that she might lose consciousness otherwise, she said.

It took a half-hour for help to arrive, Boutros said.

She has undergone several surgeries on her leg and will undergo at least two surgeries to repair the fractured lower vertebra and ruptured discs, Boutros said.

On Monday, Carleen Naumann, a sales representative for Besco Tubular, and Allan Keel, president of Crimson Exploration, were injured when an elevator dropped precipitously from the 27th floor to the 25th floor.

They were trapped in the elevator for a short time. Keel said he suffered a minor back injury and declined to be taken to a hospital.
Later, called ambulance

Naumann, of Katy, also declined treatment Monday. But she said she called for an ambulance after she got up Tuesday morning and her nose was bleeding. Her ankle also was hurting, she said.

Staff at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Katy determined she had fractured a vertebra in her lower back, she said.

“The elevator was flying. I thought we went down 15 stories. I was shocked to hear it was only two,” she said. “I was airborne and then it was as if we hit bottom.”