Recently, in a residential complex in Xingyi City, Qiannan Prefecture, Guizhou Province, 8 buildings with 2 units each, homeowners filed a complaint claiming that on November 2nd, their 7-year-old son took the elevator in the complex to go home. When the elevator reached the 11th floor, it suddenly stalled, then rapidly shot up to the 28th floor, resulting in their son being rescued with multiple fractures all over his body.
According to reports from mainland Chinese media, the boy’s mother, Ms. Li, stated on November 13 that around 7:10 pm on the 2nd, her son went downstairs to get a drink and then took the elevator back home. After entering the elevator and pressing the floor button, when the elevator reached the 11th floor, it stalled. Her son pressed the floor button again, but there was no response. He then tried pressing the emergency call button, also with no response. Suddenly, he found the elevator shooting upwards. Her son mentioned that he counted, and it took around 3 seconds to hit the ceiling.
The building has a total of 28 floors. Li said that at the time, she heard a loud noise at home and felt the building shake. A homeowner in the neighboring complex also stated that on that day, their windows rattled for a while, thinking it was an earthquake.
It has been 11 days since the incident, but Ms. Li is still shaken. At that time, the surveillance could only see the elevator stop. After the child discovered no response when pressing the floor button and then the emergency call button, the surveillance screen went black. The power went out in elevator No. 2 at the time, and it was pitch black inside. If her son hadn’t been wearing a phone watch to call her, she wouldn’t have known when she would find out that her child was stuck in the elevator.
After the incident, Ms. Li immediately dialed 120 and 119. Firefighters and elevator maintenance personnel arrived at the scene, and it took about half an hour to rescue the child.
She said that when the child was rescued, he was terrified. The elevator accident resulted in fractures to the child’s coccyx, cervical vertebrae, and multiple fractures in the thoracic vertebrae. The doctor now requires the child to lie down completely, and whether he can get out of bed will depend on further examinations.
According to property management in the complex on November 14, the elevator involved in the incident was a domestic brand that has been in use since 2012. Another homeowner questioned whether the maintenance personnel were just going through the motions in their daily checks and inspections, merely ticking boxes on time.
In response to this, Mr. Li, the person in charge of Xi Hang Elevator Company, stated that based on the situation at the scene, it was indeed in a “shoot up” state, but not as exaggerated as claimed.
The elevator company’s response online has sparked dissatisfaction. Many netizens expressed, “Multiple fractures! How is that not as exaggerated as they claim?” “Let them experience it themselves before saying it’s not exaggerated.” “Any accident in an elevator is very scary. Saying it’s not as exaggerated because you haven’t experienced it yourself. Even if the door doesn’t open, the elevator automatically changes floors and opens the door, and I would still be trembling.” “Thank goodness there was surveillance; otherwise, people would say it was the child causing trouble on their own.”
Other netizens commented, “I thought elevators only went down, so I chose a lower floor. Could they also shoot up? Terrifying.” “This is so frightening.” “When something goes wrong inside an elevator, the people involved will be terrified. How helpless and scared the child must have felt at that time.”