I know. This isn’t a blog that will resonate with very many people. However, I feel the need to create and publish it anyway because there may be ONE, just one person it reaches and educates regarding home safety in this home elevator warming.
Our home was built in 1996 by a gentleman who had an accident early in his life that left him paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Therefore, when he built this custom home (we purchased from him in 2010), it was designed to be 100% handicap accessible to accommodate his needs. Some of the features the home has are an indoor therapy pool, an indoor hot tub and an elevator.
When we moved into the home in 2010 we removed and filled in the hot tub and converted that space into what is now our master bedroom lounge. The therapy pool was a hit with the kids for many years and used often but recently I decided to convert that space into an all seasons sun room.
The elevator has remained unchanged and used often. Honestly, I never gave the elevator much thought until recently. This summer I read a horrible story about a family that rented a 15K a week beach home on the east coast that had a home elevator. The family had a young boy who became stuck in the elevator, was crushed and subsequently died. Horrifying. How could this happen? There are so many safety features built in, right? Well maybe not. I did research and quickly learned that many home elevators have a gap and it’s a safety concern. Ours included.
The danger arises from a non-obvious 5 inch gap inside of the home elevator. The gap is between the safety gate and the door. That 5 inches of space is large enough for a small child to fit, get stuck and possibly get crushed. Sure the odds of it happening are astronomical but that 5 inch gap in our elevator kept me up at night.
Thankfully, there is a solution for the gap. With the help of Executive Elevator Company in Louisville, KY they were able to measure and install baffles on all of the doors that service the elevator. It’s a simple piece of white plastic attached to the inside of the door. I hate that it took a tragic accident and the chance of me catching a news article posted online about it to find out our elevator had the unsafe gap. Thankfully, there is a way to to make the elevator safe easily and fairly inexpensively.
As I mentioned, this is a niche blog for anyone with a home elevator, however, even if one person reads this and realizes they have this liability in their home, it was worth the time it took to write it.
