When Trapped in Elevator, Watch the Smeary Walls

Now in your hour of need, helpfully comes the City of Shanghai Official Website to assist you in that broken elevator. What suggestions do they have?

What to do when trapped in a lift?

If the lift malfunctions when you are riding the lift, keep cool and don’t panic.

Keep collected, console other passengers trapped in the life with you.

Explain to other passengers that usually there will be no danger. The lift won’t fall down the lift shaft. Now everybody should be of one mind to call for help.

Fellow passengers don't worry. Usually there is no danger . . . except, oh wait.... this has the "Made in China" label.

Explain to the trapped passengers that usually there’s an anti-falling safety device on the bottom of the lift box, which stuck the lift box firmly on the rails on the walls of the lift shaft so that the lift box won’t fall. Usually when there’s a power cut, the safety device won’t fail.

That's two "usuallys" in one short paragraph. What are the chances?

Use alarm bell or interphone to call for help

When there’s no reply for the calling, the safest measure is to keep calm, retain physical strength and wait for chances to get help. Get prepared for suffering hunger or sultriness.

Note the assumption that no one will reply. Pretty safe bet. Most likely, the phone in the elevator isn't even hooked up. And you will suffer.

Call for help by flapping on the door if there’s no alarm bell or interphone. If there’s no lift technician to be immediately found, let the people outside to call for help to the fire brigade or police. Firemen usually can wind the lift up or down.

There's that word again . . . "usually". Just flap yourself against the door again and hope it isn't a national holiday.

If there’s no trained lifesaver outside, don’t climb out of the lift by yourself.

Never attempt to prize the lift door open by force. Even if the inner door can be opened, the outer door can unnecessarily be reached. The smeary wall of the lift box may make you slip. It’s uneasy to open the outer door and get out safely.

Word of caution: watch the smeary wall.

Even if there’s an emergency exit on the ceiling of the lift box, don’t readily climb out through it. As when the exit door is open, the safety switch will break the lift stop. But if the exit door accidentally closes, the lift may make a sudden start and make you lose your balance. If you stumble you may fall off the top of the lift box and cause serious injury.

That's a lot of think about. Why not just have a phone that works?