Statistical survey of elevator accidents in Greece

• Accidents on elevators and escalators in Greece have been intolerably increased.
• Explore and utilize frequencies and “correlations” among the involved factors.
• Weight and evaluate crucial mistakes and misguided actions.
• Results will help preventing similar accidents for the technical staff and the users.
• Statistical inferences were derived related to installation, service, operation regulations.

This work presents results from a statistical survey regarding accidents in elevators and escalators in Greece, based on data concerning accidents from the last 12 years. A main objective is to explore and utilize frequencies and “correlations” among the involved factors, in order to weight and evaluate crucial mistakes and misguided actions. Results will help preventing similar accidents for the technical staff and the users, as well as designing and teaching a new culture and attitude from the users’ side. Various statistical inferences were derived related to regulations for the installation, service and operation of elevators. An important finding is that 65% of the reported accidents involve qualified servicing and installation personnel or employees during their work, mainly associated with simultaneous violation of safety/health and internal electrical installations regulations. Other important outcomes concern associations between number of victims and categories of building types or of severity of accidents as well as between severity of accidents and categories of type of violated regulations or of elevator type. Furthermore, associations between severity of injury and categories of type of accident or of victims’ age have been found. Proposals for the organization of the responsible authorities, data collection and prevention of similar serious accidents in the future are included.