Musings of a Confident Duelist

Don't feel so bad. One episode of a certain anime (whose name will go unmentioned) made me afraid of elevators. ._. Fortunately, I literally never have to use them.

Hey, I don't blame you. Some pretty graphic/disturbing accidents have happened with them. Here's a few for educational purposes.

She got into the elevator first and pressed the button for the sixth floor. Nikaidoh looked at her and asked if the elevator was working. Steinau responded that, apparently, it was back in operation. So Nikaidoh started to step into the elevator to join her. Only just as he stepped in, the doors suddenly slammed closed on him. Normally when this happens the elevator doors are designed to automatically reopen. This did not happen and in an instant, Nikaidoh found himself pinned by the closed doors as the elevator began to rise. Steinau said she saw Nikaidoh try to pull free, struggling against the elevator. He almost shrugged his shoulders free from the clamping doors to quickly pull himself inside, but he didn’t make it. As the elevator rose it forced his head into the ceiling and sliced off most of his head. His left ear, lower lip, teeth and jaw were still attached to his body, which fell to the bottom of the elevator shaft, as the elevator continued moving upward. The elevator stopped just below the fifth floor and it took rescuers an hour to free Steinau. During that time she had the remainder of Nikaidoh’s head in the elevator with her. “I just keep seeing the look in his eyes,” she told officers.

The elevator industry likes to insist that, short of airplane rammings, most accidents are the result of human error, of passengers or workers doing things they should not. Trying to run in through closing doors is asking for trouble; so is climbing up into an elevator car, or down out of one, when it is stuck between floors, or letting a piece of equipment get lodged in the brake, as happened to a service elevator at 5 Times Square, in Manhattan, four years ago, causing the counterweight to plummet (the counterweight, which aids an elevator’s rise and slows its descent, is typically forty per cent heavier than an empty car) and the elevator to shoot up, at sixty miles an hour, into the beams at the top of the shaft, killing the attendant inside.

Oliver was working on the 80th story of the building on July 28, 1945. On that day, due to thick fog a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building. The plane struck the 79th floor of the building. Oliver was thrown from her post and badly burned in the accident, though she survived, while 14 others did not.

When rescuers got to her they decided to lower her via the elevator, unaware that the cables had been weakened to breaking point. Once the elevator doors closed, the cables snapped and Oliver plummeted 75 stories to the basement. She screamed all the way down when falling in the elevator. Oliver survived but again had to be rescued and was later treated at the hospital for serious injuries.

And that's not even mentioning the horror that is

ELEVATOR MUSIC

Oh, the irony of you always getting fire on quizzes, considering your username. XD

My mom too has a fear of elevators. She is claustrophobic, meaning she hates small spaces and starts panicking everytime the elevator door closes.

Using stairs has its benefits indeed!

I don't mind them, though I do feel weird in them. Don't worry though, I have older bros who fear them so.

I don't really fear elevators, but I don't like using them. I feel dizzy sometime after getting out.

Stairs master race reporting in.

Not that I'm afraid of elevators, I just don't like taking them when I can walk instead.

@Lord Clowncrete; I feel her pain, I'm also claustrophobic. X_X

Good, stairs are much better for you anyway.

I wish I could say I understand how you feel, but... unfortunately I don't. xD

I hate elevators...scary.