So at my new office, the building is beautiful but the elevator is a faulty piece of junk. It seems to break down every day. I'm certain it's only a matter of time before I'm stuck in the elevator. i like to think I would be calm. In fact, I fantasize I'd have a little while and i'd take the time to read a book, if I had one with me. I never get into this elevator if I have to go to the bathroom.
So my question: have any of you ever been in a stuck elevator? What did you do? Were you scared? how long did it take you to get out?
For those of you who never have been in this situation: what would you do if you were stuck in an elevator?
I've never been stuck on an elevator, but I've always been scared of that happening to me!
I have never been stuck but I'm sure I'd freak out!
I'm sorry but talking about being stuck in elevators doesn't really have a point.
I don't really see any other replies then "Yes, and I was a bit scared."
-close-
Reopened after discussion 
-opened- 
I haven't been. It would be odd though.
I'm not sure if I'd be scared or not. The thought of being in a room suspended from a cable, with the possibility of the cable breaking, while the entire apparatus is stuck seems scary. I'm sure they have a stopping mechanism in case the cable breaks to prevent the elevator from falling to its (and its passengers) demise...I'm sure they do too. However, it doesn't seem to always work. There's an extensive list on wikipedia of elevator accidents in recent years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator yeah once. I an old building with an old elevator.
A person opened the doors with hand and I came out.
I find out that it happens every day and people were used to that I've never been stuck in one myself, but some people were stuck in the one in my appartment building when the power went out. The maintenance crew had to get them out. >.>;
If I was stuck in an elevator I'd probably sing. That way people could hear me and wouldn't forget I was in there, and it would occupy my time. ^_^'
nope, l take stairs. HELP I'M STUCK IN THE STAIRS! is a less likely help call you'll hear
HEH , let me give ya some advices friends:
First of all, check to see that you haven't thrown the emergency stop switch. Some older elevators I've seen actually have a toggle switch with two positions, STOP and RUN, which could have accidentally been frobnicated.
Try pushing a floor button, or the door open button. Some intelligent elevator controllers will put a car to sleep when not in use, which causes the floor buttons to be disabled... however, the door open button WILL be functional. You'll probably never wind up in a disabled car unless you did something silly like prying the doors open from the outside (patience, grasshopper).
Look for a functional emergency telephone. If these fail, make noise, and LOTS OF IT. Ring the alarm bell... a lot. Ring an "SOS" on it, or just hold the button down. Shout, bang on the walls, YODEL! This will soon get someone's attention.
It is VERY unlikely that a malfunctioning elevator will fall; on traction elevators, a mechanical governor will apply the car's brakes if it tries to descend too fast, no matter what goes wrong in the controller, or even if the cables break. Hydraulic elevators are nearly incapable of falling.
Don't try to climb out into the shaft; that little hatch on the top of the elevator that you always see people climb through in the movies is locked or bolted shut from the outside of the elevator car. This is not really a bad thing, considering that the elevator you are in may be stuck... but others in the same elevator shaft may NOT. Getting crushed by two thousand pounds of steel moving at a few hundred feet per minute can ruin your whole day.
If you can see light between the elevator doors, you're at least partially lined up with a floor. This is definitely a good thing .A particular evil elevator that's failed on me several times has, both times, gotten stuck at a point almost perfectly aligned with the floor, give or take about five inches. In this case, the process of removing you from the elevator may simply involve a maintenance worker using a special elevator key in the exterior door's keyhole, and manually opening the elevator car's doors. In most other cases, the elevator can be moved by manual operation of the relays in the elevator controller.
If you are in an elevator and the building's fire alarm trips, it is quite likely that it will stop whatever it's doing and descend nonstop to the first floor, awaiting being placed in fire service. This is normal, but may take a long time in taller buildings. The doors will open when it gets there. Alternately, the elevator may simply stop at the next floor, open its doors, and go dead. NEVER attempt to leave a building via elevator in case of a fire; not only can you be trapped in an elevator that fails, but you will also probably wind up waiting for an elevator that has shut itself down and put itself out of service.
Finally, something you should not try at home: Sometimes a hydraulic elevator of a certain craptacular brand I will not mention here will have trouble levelling. This particular brand of elevator is also equipped with a REALLY crappy door operator that can be easily pried open by hand. Sometimes the levelling fails, and the doors don't open. In this case, I just push the doors open a little to see if it's close enough; if so, I just give it a good shove the rest of the way and walk off as if nothing ever happened.
Let me know how do you know so much about elevators?
im working with them thats why
Well, no not yet. If an elevator ever starts to mess up (goes to wrong floor when its supposed to go to only one other) then thats when i get off at the current floor and take the stairs. I'm dead terrified of elevators , in fact, i always take the stairs unless i have a reason not to.
Lately i've been visiting my grandmother in the hospital cuz she had surgury for appendicitis, and .. well i had an accident at work where i dropped a pallet on my foot, and it's hard to walk, so lately i've been taking the elevator.
But normally i'll take the stairs.
Once, but I was saved very quickly. Just a hint: whatever you do, do NOT try to get out of the elevator at all for your own safety. On vacation to Turkey, elevators also broke down daily. And a 10 year old kid, who was using the elevator on its own without an adult, climbed out. He was stuck, OUTSIDE of the elevator, in the elevator schaft. The elevator could go up any minute and they had to use an emergency stop to save the kids life... After 20 minutes they decided to broke out the glass window and get the kid out.
Whatever you do! Just ring the bell and yell out loud, but do not get out 
Never, but where I used them on regular basis, it was a very uncommon occurrence, and here, at NA, I'm not frequently using them. Luck or another life? aww, turtleshell. my old job was like that too - but i never actually got stuck. many, many times though the elevator would be out of service; many steps to walk!!
I have been stuck few times for short amount of time because we was uhm testing doors with friend xD that was funny and a bit scary but only a bit when he couldn't once open the door again
Nice experience 
No, but I am intrigued by the idea. Also how your reaction would differ if you were stuck with other people vs being stuck by yourself.
Thanks cahdecah for the spiel about elevator workings! Nice to know what would probably happen, without actually having to go through to the experience to find out.
If that ever happened to me, i think i'd probably end up fainting on the floor. I am incredibly claustrophobic, just the thought of being stuck makes me shiver.
Anyone else here like that, or would i be the only one unconscious on the floor 
No... I don't know too what I could do 
Generally I try to avoid using elevators because I'm a bit afraid of small rooms. As a result I have never been stuck in any elevator yet . If I was stuck in an elevator, I'd just start listening to my mp3 player and maybe try to take a nap after I've done what I could (hit door open button, emergency button, or called someone on cellphone). Maybe try to make small talk with the other people onboard? It would suck to need to go to the bathroom though.
Yes, I do. When I was in Kuwait and at that time I was in a small class... Got stuck for a few hours...
Hmm...i have never been stuck in the elevator but if it will happen...ill be scared and ill be screaming until i have not got out in that elevator. I won't stop screaming and shouting...
Yup, I got stuck in an elevator once with a friend. It was one of those models in glass, hanging outside the
building. It also had an emergency-phone, so we picked it up and talked to someone. So, we sat down and
talked a bit. None of us had a watch, but we kept track of time by counting the buses below. After an hour nothing
had happened, so we rang again, and talked to someone surprised that we still were stuck there.
Shortly after that an 'elevator-repair-guy' showed up, and we were free again.
So, the story is what we did, scared, no, but mad of the negligence. Think it was about an hour we sat there,
and I hope it won't happen again, even if it wasn't so bad. I swear, everytime i read this thread title I read it: "Ever been struck by an elevator?" I then do a double take and read it again carefully.
How exactly would you get struck by and elevator anyways? Wrench open the doors and stick your head into the shaft to see what floor it's on?
I would be fine if I got stuck on an elevator. Unless I'm in a hurry to get somewhere, I have an amazing capacity to stand idly, perfectly content with my thoughts.
Lol @ Jmanamj
But then again, actually, I remember an incident from the house I lived in as a kid. About ten floors high,
and there was two teenage kids playing with the elevator. One decided to ride it on the roof, and climbed up.
It was an old model, so you could do that. The deal was that his friend was going to push the button, but he waited
and waited, and nothing happened. Finally he got tired of waiting, and leaned down to get inside the elevator again.
At the same time an other resident pushes the button to the elevator, and this game becomes the last this
teen ever played...
Not really struck by the elevator as torn apart by it, but close enough.
My dad saw to it that we moved from that house to a one without elevator quite fast. yes i have been struck in elevator.
it was a scary moment of my life because one never know when the elevator would start again.
i was alone at that time when the electricity went off. but it was for very short time that i was struck in the elevator. But it was a very frightining moment of my life.
Well, for the record I been stuck for only 2 minutes when power went out. It was not fun, as the elevator was packed and it was starting to heat up.
| amitniec wrote: |
| been struck in elevator. |
That's also a possibility! 
Being stuck in an elevator..
Being struck by an elevator...
Being struck in an elevator...
Really, elevators are dangerous things.Where I used to take ballet classes, the elevator was really old and crappy and sometimes got stuck. It was kind of a commonplace thing. Some people really freaked out about it, but most didn't because we knew that it'd start again soon, or some of the building staff would realize it was stuck. It's important not to panic.
I think being stuck in the elevator is no big deal. Unless of course you are scared of enclosed spaces. However recently I've been in elevators which would make me go crazy if I was stuck there for longer than a minute. Those usually come from subway elevators (have you smelled urine in a humid and hot subway?). You just gotta try it. Imagine getting stuck there for a long period of time.
I've never been stuck in one, but I've heard the most common reason for them stopping is overloading (too much weight, then the emergency brakes come on). Which generally sucks because not only are you stuck in an elevator, but it's probably completely full of people.
On a side note I really, really hate people who press all the buttons on an elevator. My apartment is on the 5th floor of a 14 story building. I would normally go up the stairs if someone did that, but unfortunately, the stairwell doors are locked after 4pm (you can still exit the building through them, lol fire-hazard otherwise).
ive been quite lucky not to be stuck in one i guess but i guess id be fine , not that bad with tight spaces
to much times...my sister was stucked in a elevator and we was waiting and tring to "save" her
we asked her:
what is a starts in "e" and its stuck
and she said
the elevator that im in it!
thats was funny~!XD
___________
i am Moshe
not who you think i am
but yahe i am Once, I was working as a Temp for a mortgage company in southern California. At the time I was studying to get a real estate license. Since I was stuck I just sat down and started reading my study material. 2 Hours later the fire department showed up and let us out. One of the gentleman stuck in there with me noticed me studying and offered me job with his mortgage company. I ended up working for him for a year and a half. It's easy to forget how much the human body can stink until your stuck in a small box for a couple of hours. But all turned out well.
Never happened to me before. D: I did hear about one guy who got stuck in an elevator for 36 hours. Man, felt sorry for him. Having lived in an apartment building most of my life, I'm pretty used to them. I was born in Russia, and I remember the elevator in my building not working half the time. I clearly remember the elevator getting stuck halfway between floors, and having to climb up and out.
So now I'm pretty fearless when it comes to being in a box box suspended 18 floors above the ground in a long shaft.
luckily never however speaking of elevators that are a piece of junk - you would think that an office building of a mere 7 floors with 6 lifts to service it there would be no problems with the lifts (and may of the floors having stairs between them) - but you'd be wrong.
come 9am on a weekday and the front foyer has a queue that could rival the ones at Six Flags for the rollercoaster on a sunny sunday afternoon. all the people want to do is get to their floors!
So they changed the lift control mechanism with a really weird one - in each lobby you don't press up or down, but rather you have a numeric keypad and you enter the floor you want to do to = it then tells which of the 6 lifts to get into.
when you get into the lift the first thing you notice is that it is missing buttons for hte floors. it knows where to take you so you get in and just go for the ride.
It was very weird when introduced and not without problems but it has cut down on the horrible queuing times.
Never been stuck in one before, but I bet if I were stuck in one for longer than 15 minutes, I would pry the doors open.
I was actually stuck in an elevator three in my life.
Once was in the main library downtown (I won't say what city, it was a long time ago). My uncle and I were both in the elevator together and there was also a very old man in there with us. The elevator stopped but the doors didn't open, we didn't know if we were at a floor or between floors. After a few minutes when the doors still didn't open the older guy started to get really panicky, getting pale and breathing hard. My uncle took hold of one side of the door and I took the other and we were able to pry the doors open. We were stopped perfectly, the way the elevator should have stopped, the doors just didn't open right. There was a crowd of people standing there staring when we opened the doors and got out.
The second time I got stuck in an elevator in the building where I worked. One of those rickety old things. This elevator was so old that it still had to have an elevator operator to work it. It broke down one afternoon while I was going out for lunch and we were stuck for almost two hours waiting for the repair man to come get us out.
The third time I was with my wife in a department store in Manhattan, we were in the elevator when an alarm went off and the elevator stopped. That was a sudden jolting stop! We had no idea what was happening! A few times the elevator started and stopped again but they got us out after about 20 minutes. Good thing too, there was a pregnant woman in there with us!
I'm not afraid of elevators but given a choice I'd rather take an escalator.
Chad
Not me
But one of my friends stuck in a elevator :0
We went to a competition in a girls School in a Sunday. It was around 8pm when it happened. we were coming back after the competition and My friend stayed for the next turn for the elevator.
We were waiting for him in the ground floor but he didn't come.
After few mins, a call came and he said he is stuck. We told the Staff of the school and they came to rescue.
Only then they said that this elevator is not functioning well, so they don't use it. It stuck very often. But they didn't put a notice what so ever X( I haven't. I've got a couple of work mates who have though, and now they won't go into elevators here at work at all. They'd rather walk. Me, I'll continue to take my chances I think. It wouldn't be too terrible to be stuck for 20-30 mins, longer than that wouldn't be too pleasant though I'd imagine.
yes i have been stuck in an elevator before, it was cool, just standing there and doing nothing.
Being stuck in an elevator in my opinion, is very scary especially if the elevator is populated to max capacity. Cool air quickly diminishes and the hot air kicks in making it a sweat box. I witnessed it happen at my college and firefighters had to come in to pry the doors open and release each victim one by one through a tiny little opening.
i got stuck in the st. louis arch elevator when i was about ten years old, we were about half way when some little boy hit the stop button, it took the staff over ten minutes to realize that the elevators had stopped moving.
I played with gameboy all day in elevator when I stucked...
I use an elevator daily, but the building only has 5 floors... so I am not terrified of getting stuck. But, if the cable broke, I think I would die.
LOL...many times!!! The first time I thought a cable would snap and I'd plunge to my death, but then a lady beside me said it happens all the time, so I stopped caring. It was in a building where a friend worked. I got stuck in it most of the time I went to get him for lunch.
P.S.
And contrary to what you see in movies...there's not much sex going on in elevators. 
I've never been stuck on an elevator,and i dislike using elevator
I've been stuck once, and it was ffing scary, i never go in an elevator anymore, not even if i have to.
even if i have to go 7 floors up with my mom i say like you go ahead i take the stairs
Yeah, I was stuck in an elevator with my friends once. I think power was cut out or something, but we managed to get out by ourselves. Geez, that was so stupid a few times...but they were short times..
I got stuck in one a few years ago, I wasn't really scared as lets face it, the amount of safety devices and regulations here in the UK meant it wasn't likely to come crashing down the shaft and flatten me!
It was annoying though, and I was getting late to be somewhere so after the help phone guy told me it was going to be at least 30 minutes until an engineer arrived, I decided my own escape.
Using all my strength in my finger tips I managed to open the inner doors, then I could see I was stuck between two floors and found a lever I could grab on the outer doors and was able to force them open and slither out of the gap on my belly, dropping out to the corridor startling a few people there.
The only problem was I couldn't get to the help alarm phone guy and tell him I'd gone, but hey, I got to my appointment on time! I’ve never been stuck in an elevator. I think I’ve been watching too many films about problems in elevator and that they are the reason I am scared of it. I’ve been talking with a lot of people who got stuck and they continue to use it without any fear. We had an electricity problem few days ago and some of my friends got stuck… They got back in the elevator that same day…
So… Yes, I feel worried if I hear some strange noise and if I am alone there but I won’t stop using it. Yes I have ... it was really for a couple of minutes but I was alone... It was in the afternoon but it was dark...and just when I was starting to feel scared... the doors opened... huuh ....
When I was little I was really scared from elevators.. I hated them... I even cried one time when my parents told me that we have to use the elevator .....now when remember it makes me lough I have been stuck in the elevator in the Washington monument. It was one of those days they only let people take the elevator. I think we ended up being the last group that day We were only stopped for a 7 or 8 minutes, but it seemed like longer. At least we didn't really have anybody freak out. And it makes for a cool story. yes i have been struck in elevator and i was very scared!
I already was stuck on the elevator of the building I live in, it was at night. It was caused by a power shortage, so it was also dark. I was with a neighbor, a young man who felt a little panic, he, he. I heard before that in case of power fault, elevators allow you to open them manually from inside, so that was what I did and It worked.
The important part, since there was poor light, was to find out how much distance was left between the elevator floor and the building floor. Luckyly it was like 30cm (1ft), so it was easy to came out.
I had to calm the young man.
Later I found out that this elevator has a panic buttom, it could be important in other ocasion.
I have been stuck in an elevator twice. The first time was in a hotel, after a long work day, but I was with a friend, and we had carryout food. I picked up the phone and it connected me to the police. We sat down on the floor and ate our sandwiches, and about 10 minutes someone yelled down they would be right there. Then the door opened and there was a fireman in full gear. A little overdressed if you ask me.
The second time was at work, on a day I really needed to get home in a hurry after work. The elevator door acted like it didn't want to close, but then it did. Then it started to move and went down to the first floor but the door wouldn't open. One of my coworkers was waiting for me on the first floor and she went and got a security guard. The sad part is the first guard couldn't find the key to open the door, and he had to call a guard from another part of the building. I was in there about 20 minutes total. I had my cell phone and called home to say I would be late because I was stuck in the elevator, but noone believed me. The next day I found out the elevator stuck 3 times that day, why they didn't shut it down totally, I do not know!
