People can come up with dozens of reasons not to use an elevator. From choosing to save electricity to opting for cardio on the staircase, many decide to take the longer route to their apartment or office space. However, some are afraid of being or have already been hurt on their daily commute, fueling elevator anxieties and traumatic stress.
In the US alone, over 17,000 people already know what it’s like to undergo injuries or have experienced a loved one’s death due to elevator accidents. If you are one of these people in the New York or New Jersey area, contact an elevator accident attorney at the Law Offices of Sadaka Associates. Mr. Mark Sadaka and his experienced team have dealt with the following elevator injury claims, and they can help you, too.
Misalignments
On average, 18 billion people trip yearly in the US due to misalignments between the elevator floor and landing. Most of these accidents happen in New Jersey and New York, with New York taking the lead at 11 billion trips yearly.
While a slightly elevated platform can result in a minor toe stub or uneventful trip with no long-term effects, it can be the basis for a larger disaster. Whether a crowd is pushing into a packed elevator or a distraction pulls your attention away from the floor, a trip and fall can lead to ankle or toe sprains, leg and spinal injuries, or other bodily fractures.
Outages
When an elevator comes to an unexpected halt, more than your mind and nerves receive a jolt. A sudden stop between floors can throw your body onto the walls, doors, or elevator floor. Worse yet, it can toss you onto another passenger, causing severe injuries, including spinal injuries, broken or fractured bones, and blunt trauma.
Avoidable outages caused by negligence can also take a toll on a person’s mental state. Claustrophobia, panic attacks, and blinding fear can cause passengers to hyperventilate or act out, jeopardizing their safety. Worse yet, passengers trapped for long periods without their medications or asthma inhaler can prove fatal.
Sudden Speeds and Drops
Similar to the quick jolt of a power outage, a sudden rise in elevator speed can send passengers tumbling over one another. Typically, elevator speeds range from 1.14 to 2.27 mph. When speeds exceed this range, passengers can quickly become flustered and panicked.
A significant spike in speed means faster movement between floors and more force behind each stop. A drop, whether it’s one floor or multiple, also counts as a spike in elevator speed. Either way, passengers can be victims of whiplash, panic attacks, and other severe injuries from slips in the elevator.
Stumbling into an Empty Elevator Shaft
What’s worse than feeling the elevator drop a few stories is feeling the ground beneath you disappear as you step into an empty elevator shaft. Falling one story can lead to serious injuries, including broken bones, head trauma, lacerations, and spinal and brain injuries. Falling multiple floors down the shaft can lead to wrongful death.
If an elevator entrance opens, exposing an empty shaft, the elevator may be stalled on another floor or out of order. Most commonly, a maintenance team working on the elevator may have forgotten to put forth proper warning signs, endangering the lives of passengers. When this happens, our elevator accident lawyers are ready to fight for your rights.
Liability
Sometimes, an elevator accident may seem like a blameless event. Power outages or sudden malfunctions for any mechanism are highly possible. Still, no passenger should rule out negligence.
In order for an elevator accident attorney to fight on behalf of your negligence lawsuit, proof of the defendant’s responsibility and low elevator maintenance is necessary.
If you believe that the defendant (usually property owners or manufacturers) was aware of the elevator’s functioning issues and failed to express it to the general public, they are liable. Refusing to place a notice or to call their maintenance company are common forms of negligence.
The Property Owner
A property owner is specifically liable if they stall or skip their routine elevator maintenance. During these checks, the maintenance company will oil moving parts to keep them running smoothly, replace old parts, and tighten or adjust parts worn out from constant use.
Overlooking maintenance repairs and checkups can cause several issues, such as snapped wire cables, malfunctioning doors, and misalignments, to name a few.
If a property owner has shunned these responsibilities, our New York and New Jersey elevator accident attorneys will assist you with your injury claim.
The Manufacturing Company
In New York and New Jersey, it’s also common for elevator accident lawyers to hold the manufacturing company accountable. In many cases, the property owner has done their job in maintaining their building’s elevator system. However, the root problem may not stem from a maintenance concern.
Multiple steps in the elevator manufacturing process can go awry, causing the maintenance team to be at fault. Among the possibilities are miscalculations in the architectural blueprints, manufacturing flaws straying from the design, and incorrect product labeling. If the elevator becomes unsafe due to its construction, a product liability case will emerge.
Our Law Firm
Whether you have a personal injury claim from lacerations or other bodily harm originating from an elevator accident, or you have a product liability case due to shoddy manufacturing, count on us. From workers’ compensation cases for those working on the elevator to passenger cases, we’re your trusted elevator accident attorneys at the Law Offices of Sadaka Associates, located in New York and New Jersey.
Led by Mr. Sadaka, a dedicated lawyer familiar with complex litigation, our law firm constantly receives wide recognition for its talented and trustworthy counsel. In New Jersey, Mr. Sadaka was listed four times on the New Jersey Super Lawyers & Rising Stars list. New York has also appreciated his work over the past decade, honoring him in the “Top 40 Under 40” list.
If you would like to see Mr. Sadaka and his firm by your side in court, contact us at 1-800-810-3457 for assistance today!
