The good news is that our elevators overall are safe, observes Harry Vyas, elevator director of the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB), who reports the city suffered only 10 elevator accidents in 2007.

Yet nationally, elevators and elevators, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission record together, kill nearly 30 people a year and seriously injure over 17,000. Still notorious in New York is the January 6, 1995, elevator accident at a Bronx office building, in which James Chenault, 55, was helping a woman exit an elevator car whose doors had opened slightly above the second floor. The malfunctioning elevator suddenly restarted and shot upward — decapitating the Good Samaritan. One study sponsored by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reported that from 1992 to 2003, 68 passengers and 173 people working on or near elevators were killed though such disparate means as falling into shafts, being struck or caught by an elevator car or machinery, being in a car collapse, or even electrocution.

Less horrifically, but no less evocatively, who can forget the October 1999 ordeal of Business Week worker Nicholas White, who was trapped in a malfunctioning elevator for 41 hours over one weekend?

Current Rules, New Tests

According to Dan DeBlasio, executive vice president and partner with the BOCA Group, a vertical transportation consulting company, roped elevators, a.k.a. traction elevators, currently require three tests in a five-year period: two "no load" tests every two years and one "full load" every five years. The five-year test remains, but now a combined inspection and test are required every year. Hydraulic elevators, which have two-year tests, will now also have a yearly combined inspection and test. This means there will be two additional tests for roped elevators and three additional tests for hydraulic.

While elevator-maintenance contracts generally cover the existing two- and five-year tests, boards will be hearing from their contractors regarding new fees for the extra tests — "between $700 and $1,000 per elevator for the additional annual test and $1,400 to $2,000 per elevator for the five-year test," DeBlasio estimates.

Also adding fees is another code change, requiring a third-party private inspection agency not affiliated with the elevator-maintenance contractor to be hired to witness and certify the test. Currently, the maintenance contractor is allowed to inspect him/herself.

The change "will help bring the standards up," says Don Gelestino, president of the elevator-maintenance company Ver-Tech Elevator. "There are contractors that make sure things are right, and then there are guys who ... drive by the building, collect their $200 as they pass ‘Go,' and call it an inspection."

Even so, coordinating schedules with a third-party inspector is going to be "very tough," says Gelestino. Expert-witnessing costs per elevator could reach $450 for annual tests and $900 for five-year tests, and, again, contractors will be looking to owners to pick up the tab. "We will have to charge an additional fee for the third party to come in," says Gelestino, who advises boards to start looking at their financials right now.

For all that additional effort and money, "The equipment will not only be safer, but more reliable and last longer," believes John Beckmann, head of the engineering and consulting firm, Van Deusen & Associates (VDA), who was on the committee that wrote the new code.

Paperwork and Planning Ahead

As always, critical violations require immediate shutdown and repair, but now non-hazardous violations will have to be listed as well. All paperwork resulting from tests will need to be filed with the city within 45 days and any violations corrected within that time. The city will conduct random testing to verify violations have been addressed.

Though the changes will not be in effect until January, DeBlasio suggests boards review their existing contracts now and adopt a plan of action. "It is important to get new requirements in your contract either through a rider or a brand new contract. Don't leave yourself at the mercy of the contractor when these tests come up.

The sooner you get new pricing and lock that in the better. You also want the contractor to promise to comply with the 45-day filing period and cooperate with the third-party witness in terms of schedule."

Beckmann cautions that boards ensure the new inspection code is properly enforced. "It is important to know that the liability to perform these tests, and retroactive provisions, is on the owners. It is their responsibility. If their contractor fails to perform, or fails to get them the right information and a board wants to go to court and say, 'I didn't know,' the courts are not going to accept that. You are the owner. You had better make it your business to know."

Illustration by Dave Bamundo

Adapted from Habitat September 2008. For the complete article and more, join our Archive >>