What Prevents Elevators From Falling

The elevator system's extensive prevention and fail-safe mechanisms prevent the car from falling. The entire network of cables must hold multiple times the weight of a loaded car.



Worried that the elevator you're in is going to break from whatever's holding it up and slam against the subbasement floor like something out of a Road Runner cartoon?

Don't, because it really nearly never happens. You can thank the system's extensive prevention and fail-safe mechanisms for that.

First, there are the cables. The entire network of them must hold multiple times the weight of a loaded car, so should one snap there's still plenty of pull to keep it from falling.

Usually, one is enough to keep passengers safe in an emergency. For all of them to be severed, something truly cataclysmic has to have happened.

The elevator's operating system checks for glitches. If any are found the power is cut, the brakes are activated, and the car stops moving until normalcy is restored.

Elevators have a few kinds of brakes. Two are designed for added safety - motor brakes for electrical crisis and safety brakes for runaway cars.

Finally there are counterweights that in the face of all other aspects failing would pull the car upwards.

Out of the 18 billion elevator trips that happen annually, about 25 fatalities occur.