Safe Ride? Older Elevators Causing Injuries, Deaths

According to Gelestino, New York City updated its codes for the operation of elevators last month, bringing them up to line with the rest of the country by requiring overspeed devices and smoke sensors.

"In general, fixing elevators in not a high priority for most building managers," said Gelestino. "You see buildings where they're spending money to renovate the lobby, putting new bricks and adding a new garden out front and meanwhile the elevators are stopping off-level. You don't see a big rush to fix things unless there's an accident."

In general, elevators are extremely safe: With more than 120 billion annual rides on more than 600,000 elevators every year, only 7,934 people were injured and went to the emergency room in 2007, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The most common injuries are caused by falls and by reaching out an arm or leg to keep an elevator door from closing, according to the CPSC.

That is the lowest injury rate in more than 10 years, which has been steadily declining since it peaked at 11,694 in 2001. Fatality rates were not immediately available.

Yet dramatic cases of elevator injuries and mishaps continue to make the headlines, from the 26 teen cheerleaders who had to be rescued after they crammed into a University of Texas elevator, causing it to stall and one girl to faint, to the Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, who became a prisoner in her own jail Wednesday when she and some staff members were stuck in an elevator for 45 minutes.

Aging elevators, many of which lack updated safety features to limit the speed and prevent riders from accessing the shaft, continue to be a problem and many remain unfixed, said safety experts.

As many as 1,000 of Dallas County's 8,000 elevators do not have current certified state inspections, and 400 of them are overdue for annual checkups, according to the Texas Department of License and Regulation.

Most infamously, Nicholas White spent 41 hours in a stuck elevator in a New York City office building after returning from a cigarette break, telling "Good Morning America" that he thought he would die of dehydration.