<p>Twenty-four people were in a dormitory elevator at Ohio State University Friday night when it started descending without closing its doors and killed a freshman who was pinned while trying to slip out, the Associated Press reported. The students in the elevator probably exceeded the weigh capacity for the elevator by more than 1,000 pounds, a fire official told the AP.</p>
<p>Oh, that is just horrible.</p>
<p>I wonder if the elevator was properly inspected on a regular basis and had a little sign indicating how many folks could fit in it and all of that. </p>
<p>For a rather short while, I attended the University of Memphis. The University of Memphis is very much a fourth tier school, so some of you proactive parents might not have ever heard of it! At that University, a really fair amount of the elevators are in a horrible state and folks cram into them all the time. </p>
<p>I hate hearing of a younger person passing away in such a horrible manner. And, I am sure that all of the other folks in the elevator are going through a rather trying time right now. But, maybe this incident will help some schools out because it will maybe help some schools really enforce the weight capacity rules and maybe help the adminstration get on the ball with making sure the elevators are inspected on a regular basis.</p>
<p>It is horrible. Since the elevator allegedly held half a ton over its weight limit. I'm wondering whether the students were playing some kind of game such as seeing how many people they could stuff into the elevator.</p>
<p>I would have thought elevators had safety mechanisms against overloading like this. I guess not this one.</p>
<p>The elevator did have a safety mechanism (that didn't activate), and at its last inspection (July), there were no problems.</p>
<p>The article states "no problems were found in the .. two years of inspections" that this particular company had the inspection contract yet students say the elevators routinely fail and have problems. Something's seriously wrong with this picture. I hope parents of students and students themselves at OSU raise a ruckus over this.</p>
<p>That's terrible. I can only imagine what those kids must be feeling right now! What a horrible thing to have to see! </p>
<p>I know here we have people try to cram in elevators all the time and I know sometimes they go over their weight limit. Perhaps this will make people realize how dangerous that really can be...</p>
<p>What a sad story. In grad school, I was on my way down in the elevator of my off campus apartment building when the door to one of the floors opened and I looked down as the door was closing to see that the shaft was in flames! I couldn't get the door to open and really thought that was going to be it. Luckily, the elevator just continued on down to the lobby and the door opened and I got out - with the thing still on fire. Very scary, to say the least.</p>
<p>roshke:</p>
<p>That's scary. What happened with it? Did it just go out or did the fire department come? Did you use the stairs from then on?</p>
<p>ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad, Oh yes, the fire department came to put it out. I think someone had even called in the alarm before I got off the thing, I probably got on just after they got off. Believe it or not, once we were assured that the elevator was fixed, I used it again! To this day, I'm not completely enamored with elevators!</p>