Child Crushed by In-Home Elevator After Regulators Decline Recall

WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to the Washington Post, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, commonly abbreviated as CPSC, declined to order a recall of in-home elevators notwithstanding the dangers posed to children by the elevator. The CPSC and the elevator industry stakeholders understand the problem and well know the repair is a quick and easy fix. The repair cost is around $100.00. The $100.00 insert prevents a small child from becoming caught under the elevator and being crushed. Both smaller and larger children are at risk of getting trapped by a moving elevator without a protective barrier.

The CPSC and elevator company executives are well aware that in-home elevators are potentially lethal additions to a person’s home. Even though the CPSC and elevator companies fully comprehend the risk to children in-home evaluators present, they refused to announce a recall program to repair the problem. Instead, the CPSC issued a safety alert about the attendant risk of installing and operating an in-home elevator.

The design defect almost killed again. On Thanksgiving day, a family in Utah scrambled to save the life of a four-year-old boy who became trapped underneath the elevator in his home. The family installed the elevator to aid the homeowner’s mother, who suffered from severe mobility limitations, get to the upstairs level of the home. The boy’s parents and relatives scrambled to pry pieces of the elevator away from his compressed chest. Time was running out. The boy turned blue and was struggling to breathe as the elevator pressed down into the floor. Somehow, family members pried pieces of metal apart and freed enough of the boy’s chest to allow him to breathe on his own. The boy luckily survived. Other children have not been so lucky.

The design of the elevators leaves a gap between an exterior door that swings and an accordion door that is attached to the lift. Children become trapped in the gaps and have for three decades at least. A small adapter will snugly fit into the gaps and prevent children from becoming trapped in the elevator door and base. The CPSC has still refrained from announcing a recall.

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