Safetystream: Elevator Safety

Last Friday, I was in the elevator on my way to the basement parking of my workplace's building. I was looking forward to finally going back home and spending the day with my siblings. On the Ground floor, the elevator door would usually automatically open to let more people in before heading off to any other floor, whether up or down. I waited patiently when the doors opened but nobody stepped in. When not in a hurry, I would wait for the door to close on its own rather than force it to close with the "Close" button. And so, I waited some more. 

 Nada. 

I stood at the farthest corner of the cab, just staring into space. The elevator doors started to close as I watched it in a trance-like state. 

Two inches...

One inch...

Just as it was about to completely close, a hand appeared right in the middle of the closing gap. The hand started moving up and down rapidly as if trying to frantically ask for some higher being (like the door's sensors) to notice it. 

The doors continued to close and it was closing in on the intruding hand. It did not care. I heard a desperate squeak from the hand (its owner, to be exact) before I finally was able to leap to it's rescue and press the "Open" button. A small woman of about 40-ish got in with a sigh of relief.

I could not let the incident pass and told her:

"Safety first. Be careful."

She gave me a guilty chuckle before she turned to face the doors. 

I shook my head and sighed. I wanted to tell her that I've heard of some gristly stories about people getting their body parts trapped in between the doors and getting mauled as the cab started moving. I've heard of people getting their shoes, bags and other apparel stuck in between as it would move up or down to its limit and stay there till the doors opened again. I thought those were great examples of apparent disregard for one's safety. I, personally, would just allow the doors to close and wait for the next cab to open. It wasn't worth risking a hand, an arm or a foot. 


I wanted to tell her all those things but it would have turned out to be a scolding...for a perfect stranger. Besides, it was my turn to get past the door to get out  on to my designated basement floor. I was glad the other passenger waited for me to step off completely before she moved to push the "Close" button.

...and she wasn't even supposed to go down because I saw her press the number 12.