Traction Elevator Entrapment Below Landing
At a 12-storey condominium, a 2011 gearless traction elevator with eight stops and a rated speed of 1.75 m/s stops 300 mm below the 7th floor with the doors closed. The passengers use the emergency phone; the building superintendent arrives and, using the emergency door key, opens the hoistway door at the 7th floor, revealing the car floor 300 mm below the landing. Two passengers climb out. No one is injured. You arrive 45 minutes later. The controller fault log shows “door zone/leveling” faults and a “position encoder” fault. The car is now at the main floor and runs normally in test mode. The superintendent wants to reset the fault and return it to service; a council meeting is scheduled in two hours.
1. What immediate actions and investigation steps are required before any reset?
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I would place the car on independent service, keep it out of passenger service, and prevent the superintendent from resetting the fault until the cause is understood. The car stopped 300 mm below the landing with doors closed, so the first question is whether the stop was a leveling/position-feedback failure, a door-zone sensor failure, a brake issue, or a controller fault. I would inspect the encoder, its coupling, wiring, and shielding; check the leveling sensors and door-zone switches for alignment and contamination; review the fault log timestamps; and perform the manufacturer’s recall and leveling tests. I would also check the brake for drag or delayed set and verify that the car stops and levels consistently at several floors. The superintendent’s door-key extraction was dangerous because the car was below the landing and the hoistway door was opened outside a proper evacuation procedure; that should be documented and reviewed with building staff. Resetting without finding the cause would leave an intermittent hazard in service.
2. What reporting and communication obligations may apply, and what would you tell the owner?
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I would document the event in the maintenance record, including the car position, fault codes, passengers involved, extraction method, and all tests performed. I would notify the owner in writing that the elevator is out of service pending diagnosis and that only trained personnel should perform passenger extraction. I would also determine whether the event meets the incident-reporting triggers under Ontario Regulation 209/01 and the applicable CSA B44 requirements; an entrapment or an unintended stop below a landing may require notification to TSSA within the prescribed time, even if no one was injured. I would not rely on the absence of injury as a reason to treat the event as routine. The council meeting is not a reason to return the car to service. The car should remain out of service until the root cause is corrected, the recall and leveling tests are repeated successfully, and the required records and notifications are complete.