Luxury Buildings Push Elevators to New Heights

According to The Sun , there are a couple of ways you can try to survive if you ever do find yourself in this horrifying situation.

What would you do in a falling lift?

Cushion the impact

If you’re travelling with luggage (or anything big and bulky) the best thing to do is lay or stand on top of it.

Whether it’s a suitcase, handbag or briefcase, make sure you get on top of it to cushion the blow.

That’s because it’s possible that the items you’re on top of can break the force of impact and act like a crumple zone in a car.

Jump

An urban legend suggests that if you jump at the right time, you can save yourself from death in a falling lift.

But unfortunately, the laws of physics — more specifically, the laws of relative motion — aren’t so optimistic.

An emergency button won’t be much use …

An average-sized lift falling 20 storeys would reach speeds of over 151km/h before hitting the ground, whereas the speed of a human jump is about 5km/h.

The maths isn’t pretty: your body would still be travelling at 146km/h at the point of impact, so it’s very unlikely you’d survive the fall.

It would also be incredibly hard to push off the floor and jump in the first place if the lift was travelling that fast.

Lay flat on floor

The best way to survive a falling lift is to lie flat on the elevator floor with your arms and legs spread out in a starfish shape.

This means you distribute the force of impact across your entire body and there is less chance of serious injury to one area.

Don’t worry — the odds of a fatality in falling lift are very, very low.

You need to use the part of your body with the most fat on to cushion the blow, and try to protect your head and neck.

However, experts warn that it’s important to be aware of any shrapnel or debris which may come loose and hit you as you land.

Don’t panic — the fatality rate of using a lift is only 0.00000015 per cent or one in 650,000,000 rides, so you’d be really unlucky to find yourself in that position.

But, in the very unlikely event that you do, your best bet is to lay flat.