The lift at Antonius Deusinglaan 1 that fell seven floors on Thursday morning was stuck on the sixth floor for an hour before the incident.
Translation by Traci White
The lift which fell from the sixth floor into the basement is still out of service on Friday morning, according to Dagblad van het Noorden. All the other lifts in the building, which is part of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, were already back in use by 3 p.m. on Thursday.
The lift originated on the tenth floor of the building and got stuck on the sixth floor with 14 people inside for about an hour. The lift made a controlled fall seven stories down, causing minor injuries to several occupants. One passengers sustained more serious injuries and was taken to the UMCG emergency room: the building is part of the academic hospital complex.
Free fall “exceedingly rare”
Dagblad van het Noorden spoke with Koos van Lindenberg, who has worked at the Lift Institute in Amsterdam for 30 years, about the accident. Van Lindenberg says that free falling lifts are exceedingly rare and that the UMCG incident was most likely a lift that fell at a faster than normal speed.
“A lift uses a system of iron cables, similar to train tracks but they run vertically. If the speed a lift is travelling becomes too fast, for example due to an issue with the motor, then grips are activated around the cables to slow it down.” Van Lindenberg says that passengers inside such an elevator may perceive that as an uncontrolled fall, all the same.
Photo source: Libreshot
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