The Washington Post reports that “three companies agreed to recall their home elevators to fix a safety hazard that has killed and hurt children for decades, regulators announced Tuesday.” According to the Post, “Two other major manufacturers continued to refuse the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s request that they voluntarily agree to notify consumers and make minor modifications to eliminate the danger.” CPSC records and newspaper accounts show that “at least eight children were killed and two more seriously injured in elevator entrapments between 1981 and 2019.”
The Hill reports that “the decision was the result of the danger presented as ‘young children can become entrapped in the space between the exterior landing (hoistway) door and the interior elevator car door or gate.’”
NPR reports the three companies doing voluntary recalls “say they’ll provide customers with free ‘space guards,’ which attach to the exterior landing door and fill the gap between the door and the elevator.” In a joint statement, the companies said “Today’s announcement also reflects our three companies’ firm, continued commitment to working with our installer partners so that future residential elevators will be installed consistent with voluntary safety standards to eliminate hazardous gaps between home elevator car doors or gates and hoistway doors.” The three companies have “no injuries or deaths reported involving the three companies’ products, but there have been fatal accidents linked to residential elevators.”
From the news release of the American Association for Justice.
