getting trapped in a lift

Robsweezie

any experience of this? I feel like im taking my life into my hands every time I go in one. I caught a faint burning smell in the lift today and thought '****, armageddon' I always get these intrusive thoughts and fears of the whole thing collapsing and just crashing into the abyss. theres always that moment of apprehension just before the door opens again as to whether it will or not, and how I would react/what to do if It didn't open as expected. Im an out and out claustrophobe.

PandaPoo

Take the bloody stairs!!!

SpaceTime

Have taken probably 8 trips in a lift maybe every weekday for the last 5 years. Never been stuck!

I'd say you're overestimating the risks just a tad.

freshpopcorn

It happens to my aunt in England in the late 70's early 80's. I think she was there for a couple of hours. When she got out she got whiskey or brandy and tea/coffee. Think she enjoyed it because of the refreshments.

jimgoose

Well they can't fall, because of the Otis gravity-brake. The confinement can be a little disconcerting alright

The Backwards Man

I got caught in a lift with jimgoose once, never again!!

jimgoose

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I got caught in a lift with jimgoose once, never again!!

That was your own fault. I told you that wasn't any emergency lever!

Magico Gonzalez

got caught in a lift with my wife and the father in law once for about 2 hours. The most embarassing part was when i had to tell him that if we didnt get out soon I was going to have to try and piss through the miniscule crack between the doors. He just shook his head and looked disappointed.

Thankfully we were freed before the unforgivable had to happen.

SpaceTime

That's why all lifts should have an emergency bucket.

Junkyard Tom

I must admit I always look up for an escape hatch in the roof of a lift when I get in.

SpaceTime

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

I must admit I always look up for an escape hatch in the roof of a lift when I get in.

Terrible idea. Most dangerous thing you could possibly do is climb out of the lift! It's very unlike the movies.

NachoBusiness

Have severe claustrophobia.

I am terrified of lifts, being in planes, on the wrong side of the Luas / Tube when it's packed, being the middle passenger in the backseat of a car, etc etc etc. I can even get panic attacks just listening to people talking about trapped, like in Brian Keenan's book where he described how when they wanted to move him from location to location, they'd tape him from head to toe in duct tape, with only a small hole from him to breathe through. So yeah.. hate lifts, although if I had to get in one for a grand or something, I choose the ones with glass for sides so at least you could see out, even if you couldn't get out.

This would be me in an ordinary lift though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8xV8Y3rPuo

awec

About 2 months ago the lift in our apartment building decided to act up. It would bring you to your floor but then the door wouldn't open and none of the buttons would work. It would go back down to floor 0, then up to the very top before back down again. Eventually it would bring you where you wanted and the doors would open, you just might be stuck inside for 5 minutes first!

obplayer

Brought up in a high-rise I was stuck in jammed lifts a fair amount over the years. One time, I am about 7 or 8, I am stuck with a neighbours 6 year old brat who starts sniffling and whinging. Leading me to point out to her that 'we are never getting out!'. 'No-one is going to rescue us!'. 'No one can hear us, there is no point crying and shouting!' And similar calming things. (I've always been a gentleman ).
Of course by the time we got out you could have heard her roaring half a city away and my eardrums hurt, but it was worth it. As I said to my mum, when the brat informed on me, 'what did she think was going to happen, we were only stuck in the lift?'.

Canis Lupus

SpaceTime wrote: »

Terrible idea. Most dangerous thing you could possibly do is climb out of the lift! It's very unlike the movies.

And not possible either. Lifts don't have escape hatches.

Grab All Association

Statistics show you're more likely to die falling down a stairs than to die in a lift.

NachoBusiness

Chris___ wrote: »

Statistics show you're more likely to die falling down a stairs than to die in a lift.

Fear of dying is not what the panic is about. It's a fear of being trapped / confined. People have killed themselves rather than be trapped for a moment longer.

I refused an MRI many years ago in Beaumont as it was the old type where you where pretty much slid inside a machine, felt like fecking coffin.

Had one last year in the newer ones in St James's and it was a breeze in comparison.

roverrules

Just leave this here for anyone who might be worried
http://listverse.com/2011/12/23/10-tragic-elevator-accidents/

MadYaker

I've seen enough shiity action movies to know there's always a panel in the roof that you can get out through.

NachoBusiness

MadYaker wrote: »

I've seen enough shiity action movies to know there's always a panel in the roof that you can get out through.

There about as real as people having a 555 area code :P

corner of hells

Canis Lupus wrote: »

And not possible either. Lifts don't have escape hatches.

You , clearly, are not using the right lifts.

The_Valeyard

Japanese are installing toilets in lifts, in case of this sort of thing.

http://www.thejournal.ie/japan-toilets-lift-earthquake-2139764-Jun2015/



But the prize goes to Brazil for some of the best lift pranks

SpaceTime

SpaceTime wrote: »

Terrible idea. Most dangerous thing you could possibly do is climb out of the lift! It's very unlike the movies.

,As a teenager in ballymun flats we regularly stopped lifts between floors and rode up and down.

SpaceTime

SpaceTime wrote: »

Terrible idea. Most dangerous thing you could possibly do is climb out of the lift! It's very unlike the movies.

,As a teenager in ballymun flats we regularly stopped lifts between floors and rode up and down.

SuperS54

Some years ago I visited a supplier with an audit team, the lift was a very large freight type not your normal passenger type. We arrived early and took the lift to the floor we thought their offices were on, when the door opened there were no lights on in the corridor and I stood in the lift doorway to take a look and see if we were in the right place, the doors then started to close which my "it's too early in the morning to work" brain chose to ignore assuming the safety switch would cause them to open again...except it didn't because there wasn't one...Luckily I was standing square on in the doorway and was able to push myself back into the lift, a nice little adrenaline wakeup...the company failed the audit...

Timberrrrrrrr

Working in a large corporate bank a few years ago and got stuck in one for 3 hours, Security called the engineer but took ages to get the doors open, started worrying a bit near the end, battery was down to 8% from playing angry birds.

SuperS54

Couple of weeks ago the set of apartment blocks I live in had a sudden power cut at 10.30pm, everything went dead, no emergency generators. There's at least 18 lifts in the complex and a nighttime engineering team of 2 maximum, neighboring high rises all had no power so resources were thin on the ground. With nothing better to do I went to bed, not the most comfortable as it was over 30 degrees outside and made even less comfortable by the screams and shouts coming from the lift which had stopped near my floor! Very glad I wasn't in one of the lifts, must have been horrid, minimal emergency light, sweltering temperature and a very slow response. Also very glad I live on the 5th floor of 36...assumed the complex had some sort of emergency generators that would at least power the lifts but it doesn't.

I think the link to a report on toilet facilities in Japanese lifts isn't such an odd idea, whilst listening to the screamers I was imagining what it would be like to be stuck in the lift and "have to go", especially a number 2! It's possible that it would all be on video and up on youtube for everyone's amusement before you'd even been rescued from the lift...

Samaris

The Brazilian screamer prank is on the one hand kinda funny, and on the other, I know I'd go through the bloody roof if that happened to me.

I hate lifts myself, and always have. I always took the stairs if I could get away with it. Too small, too enclosed.

chanelfreak

Got trapped in one with the other half about 8 years ago on a Friday evening just as we were leaving work. Rang the emergency bell yoke and got through to the engineer who said he was in Clondalkin and it would take him about 2 hours to get to Sandyford. Cue mass hysterics from me, so much so that the security guard in the building tried to prise open the doors with a crowbar (unsuccessfully). Finally got out about an hour later but it really was pretty damn horrific. Shudder.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

The thoughts of it, reading this thread, is enough to make me start panicking. I hate that split second the lift seems to delay after its stopped before you can open the lift.

UpCork

I get panicky even thinking about it.

I think with me it stems back to when I was a child. My Mum worked in a big building and the lifts were old and unable, I think to take the volume of people using them. She'd often talk how the lift would get stuck or the door wouldn't open. As a young child, I didn't think much of it, but when I got to about 13 or 14 I had a major freak out at the thought and would take the stairs in most places.

Got a bit better as I got older. Hotel lifts abroad scare me, particularly as I go to Italy a bit and most of their hotels have tiny lifts. I usually just take the stairs no matter how high up my room is.

I get this recurring nightmare about being stuck in a lift. It is always in a high-rise, like something you'd see in Asia and I want to go to a Floor 10 or 11.The lift is always packed and I see the number moving closer to my desired floor, then it skips my floor and goes up up up until all have got out and I'm left on my own....then it starts to descend, same thing again, until it misses my floor again......then I usually wake up panicking and sweating and can't go in a lift for ages after it.

mariaalice

I would be slightly claustrophobic so I am careful about lifts I don't think you would be stuck for long nowadays, but its the claustrophobic bit that concerns me I force my self not to think about it you cant let it controlee you. I don't like the underground in London for the same reason.

Menas

Getting trapped in a lift would not overly bother me.
But in the years ago there used to be lifts that had no doors. Just a gate thing on the outside of the life on each floor. So you had to stand in the middle of the cabin.
Trouble was that you then had the 'moving wall' effect which could make you very dizzy and disoriented.
Like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB4fh7PG1gQ

I doubt any of this makes sense unless you have experienced it!

failinis

I have never been stuck on a lift before but I have a very strong phobia about it.
If I have to get in one I can (like high rise buildings or carrying/transporting heavy things) but I break out a cold sweat and get out as soon as the doors open.
I know it can't fall down due to the break safety system, but even thinking about the doors suddenly slamming shut on you or anything, no thanks, rather take the stairs.

Turtyturd

Jake1 wrote: »

,As a teenager in ballymun flats we regularly stopped lifts between floors and rode up and down.

Those Ballymun lifts were also ahead of their time for having toilets in them.

awec

In the movies they push open lift doors a lot too. Anyone know if this is another movie myth, or if lifts actually can have their doors pushed open by your average person without tools?

corner of hells

SuperS54 wrote: »

Couple of weeks ago the set of apartment blocks I live in had a sudden power cut at 10.30pm, everything went dead, no emergency generators. There's at least 18 lifts in the complex and a nighttime engineering team of 2 maximum, neighboring high rises all had no power so resources were thin on the ground. With nothing better to do I went to bed, not the most comfortable as it was over 30 degrees outside and made even less comfortable by the screams and shouts coming from the lift which had stopped near my floor! Very glad I wasn't in one of the lifts, must have been horrid, minimal emergency light, sweltering temperature and a very slow response. Also very glad I live on the 5th floor of 36...assumed the complex had some sort of emergency generators that would at least power the lifts but it doesn't.

I think the link to a report on toilet facilities in Japanese lifts isn't such an odd idea, whilst listening to the screamers I was imagining what it would be like to be stuck in the lift and "have to go", especially a number 2! It's possible that it would all be on video and up on youtube for everyone's amusement before you'd even been rescued from the lift...

Did the screamers and shouters die ?

SuperS54

corner of hells wrote: »

Did the screamers and shouters die ?

I didn't see any reports, so assume they didn't or at least not many of them did...I do know that my attempts at an early night were further interrupted by people tramping up and down the emergency stairs (metal for fire safety) for the next couple of hours until the power came back on...

SuperS54

Menas wrote: »

Getting trapped in a lift would not overly bother me.
But in the years ago there used to be lifts that had no doors. Just a gate thing on the outside of the life on each floor. So you had to stand in the middle of the cabin.
Trouble was that you then had the 'moving wall' effect which could make you very dizzy and disoriented.
Like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB4fh7PG1gQ

I doubt any of this makes sense unless you have experienced it!

I think that Paternoster linked at the end of the video is a much scarier prospect!

walkingshadow

One time, a madman trapped me and a bunch of work colleagues in a lift. We would have been doomed were it not for Keanu Reeves and Jeff Daniels showing up.

Speedsie

Menas wrote: »

Getting trapped in a lift would not overly bother me.
But in the years ago there used to be lifts that had no doors. Just a gate thing on the outside of the life on each floor. So you had to stand in the middle of the cabin.
Trouble was that you then had the 'moving wall' effect which could make you very dizzy and disoriented.
Like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB4fh7PG1gQ

I doubt any of this makes sense unless you have experienced it!

There's one of those lifts in the Village at Lyons, bringing you down to the lower restaurant area... Bit freaky watching the walls move!

Egginacup

jimgoose wrote: »

Well they can't fall, because of the Otis gravity-brake. The confinement can be a little disconcerting alright

Didn't a woman in a lift fall in the the Empire State Building when a plane crashed into it?

Actually I think she was already injured from the crash and they put her in a lift and the lift plunged 75 floors......and she SURVIVED :eek:

Mitch Connor

I got trapped in a lift for 2 hours with a few friends and a load of americans - leaving Phaton of the Opera in the Venetian in vegas. It was slowly bumped all the way down to the basement. One lady had just had knee surgery so was in a jock by the end of it. One of the americans had told his wife to ring his lawyer. One girl fainted and her mother went mental, jabbering in Spanish. My other half tried to help, being a nurse, and after 15minutes of trying to calm her down (not speaking the language) it turned out one of the other idiots in the lift spoke spanish but didn't think it a pertinent skill at the time.

I got a glass of water and an apology. I asked for Blue Man Group tickets and got nowt. Bastids.

NachoBusiness

awec wrote: »

In the movies they push open lift doors a lot too. Anyone know if this is another movie myth, or if lifts actually can have their doors pushed open by your average person without tools?

Ray Darcy (of all people) managed to do it in Spain, apparently:

Ray D'Arcy reveals terror as toddler son was stuck in lift for 15 minutes

Ray D'Arcy has spoken of his panic when his two-year-old son got trapped in a lift while the family were on holiday in Spain.

Ray told his listeners yesterday how the couple were loading bags of shopping into the lift in the basement car park of the complex when Jenny jumped out to turn off their car engine when the doors closed.

Ray said that the manager eventually turned off the power to the lift on the suggestion of an English holidaymaker who was at the poolside.

He said he then ran and physically prised the doors open.

"It was like Superman stuff. I put my foot up against the wall and I pulled the door open and then there was the lift door," he said.

"I could hear Tom. The lift had gone up about two feet and stuck. It opened.

"That was the most emotional reunion.

"Tom was a bit distressed but we forced him back into it immediately."

"It was like Superman stuff" .. Some spoon

Conor Bourke

mariaalice wrote: »

I would be slightly claustrophobic so I am careful about lifts I don't think you would be stuck for long nowadays, but its the claustrophobic bit that concerns me I force my self not to think about it you cant let it controlee you. I don't like the underground in London for the same reason.

This is exactly what I was about to post. I actually dislike the underground way more than lifts though.

Myself and ibarelycare got stuck in a lift for about 30 seconds in a hotel last year. The emergency phone thing didn't work and we'd no coverage on our phones to ring reception :eek: we told them when we eventually got moving and out again.

Clearlier

awec wrote: »

In the movies they push open lift doors a lot too. Anyone know if this is another movie myth, or if lifts actually can have their doors pushed open by your average person without tools?

Don't know about all lifts but I got stuck in the lift in the arts block in UCD with a couple of others about 15 years ago and after half an hour of standing around being told that an engineer was coming I gave it a go and they opened fairly easily. Felt a bit sheepish at not having tried it sooner.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Tom was a bit upset after getting trapped in the lift so we booted the little ****er back onto it cause reasons? Go D'Arcy.

Neyite

awec wrote: »

In the movies they push open lift doors a lot too. Anyone know if this is another movie myth, or if lifts actually can have their doors pushed open by your average person without tools?

We were able to do that thankfully.

We had piled in with suitcases, baby, buggy after a trip away and the lift stopped between floors. Himself managed to pry the doors open and we wedged the suitcase in the opening, I climbed out, he handed me the baby, buggy, and everything else then got out himself.

A bit scary, but we had phone reception so my biggest immediate concern was feeding the baby if they got hungry and we were there for a while.

josip

Got stuck in a 4 person one last week with my wife, our son and nephew.
We had a few bags with us as we were heading off and there wasn't much room in the lift.
37 degrees outside, probably around 32-33 inside the building and inside the lift with its silver shiny walls things felt warm.
Thankfully the lift phone to the external service company worked and 15 minutes later we were freed.
Wouldn't have like to be in there much longer being responsible for 2 children.

apieceofcake

The thoughts of getting stuck in a lift make me feel sick!!

I have never go stuck but every time I get in a lift, I hold my breath. People tell me face your fear, but I don't know.....

I don't how those people manage in somewhere like New York with their 44th Floor apartment building etc!!

lulu1

I dont think it would bother me if I got stuck but my sister wouldn't even get into a lift if you gave her a million euros

I know a man who refuses point blank to get on an escalator