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Elevator deaths blamed on loose cableAug 07, 2010 (The Brunswick News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A tripped shut-off switch stopped the elevator that trapped a St. Simons Island couple in their home in July. Sherwood Wadsworth, 90, and Carolyn Wadsworth, 89, were found dead July 14 in their home elevator after it became stuck between the top two floors of their three-story home at 106 Fiddler Lane, St. Simons Island. Autopsies revealed the couple died from heat exhaustion after being in the elevator car for four days. Paul Welch, director of safety engineering with the Georgia Department of Labor, said Friday the "slack cable switch" was set off by a different sort of loose cable that was sticking out of the drum at the top of the elevator shaft. According to a department report released Thursday, the shut-off switch is designed to stop the elevator if tension on the cables lessen to a certain degree. In this case, it was physically struck by a loose cable that protruded from the drum that winds the elevator up and down the shaft. Welch said the loose cable was like extra string on the tuning key of a guitar. The drum, which the cable winds around like a spool, has a hole through its center where the first part of the cable is secured, he said. Once the cable is pushed through the hole, the drum can spin, causing the rest of the cable to wrap around it and making the elevator move through the shaft. The extra cable sticking out of the hole is usually cut or tucked under the other cable, but in this case it became loose. The 33-inch loose cable was spinning like a Weed-eater and hitting everything it could reach -- including the shut-off switch, Welch said. There is no regulation about how long the extra cable can be, Welch said, but it needs to be secured. "I prefer (extra cable) to be cut off. The shorter the better is how I feel about it," he said. Another problem with the elevator was that it didn't have a phone. According to the report, there was a phone jack in the car, but no phone attached to it. Sam Hall, spokesperson for the labor department, said the best way for people to avoid having their elevator malfunction is to have it regularly inspected by a licensed elevator maintenance company. Elevators in private residences are inspected by the state when they are first installed, but Hall said it's up to residents to make sure they are kept up after that. The Wadsworths last had their elevator inspected in April. The loose cable was reportedly secured at that time, the department report stated. To see more of The Brunswick News or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, The Brunswick News, Ga. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544). |