Elevator malfunction traps 2 women for 3 hours
Updated: 2011-07-08 15:36
By Wang Qingyun (chinadaily.com.cn)
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A woman and her mother were trapped in an elevator that went out of control for nearly three hours before they were rescued, in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality on Wednesday, the Chongqing Evening News reported Friday.
Li Xiaorun, 36, and her mother got into an elevator on the 18th floor of their apartment building about 7:30 am on Wednesday.
"I pressed the button for the ground floor. The elevator began shaking strongly after going down just one floor," said Li. Then it suddenly dashed upward, kicking Li and her mother back on the floor before slamming into the top of the shaft over the highest 33rd floor.
"It lasted for just a few seconds?... My feet felt very, very heavy." Li and her mother found they couldn't stand up and reach the emergency button, because they had broken bones.
For the next half-hour, Li kept trying to call her husband waiting down in the garage, but she couldn't get a signal on her cell phone. At 8:01 am, Li's husband got a text message from her and called for help.
Workers from the maintenance company and firefighters had to break through the wall outside the elevator to get the two women out after they failed to bring it down. Li suffered six fractures in her right leg and several bruises, while her mother's pelvis was broken.
The elevators in the building often malfunction, and errors in the computer's motherboard caused the accident, said a person from the maintenance company.