Elevator Accidents

You were hurt in an elevator or on an escalator, in a store, an office, your apartment building, a hotel, a hospital or at work. Maybe a door closed on you, the car stopped short of the floor and you tripped stepping out, it dropped or jolted, or an escalator caught your shoe. If you’re hurting and not sure whether this was anyone’s fault, that’s a normal reaction.

Here’s the plain answer. Whoever owns or controls the building usually has to use reasonable care to keep its elevators and escalators safe, and a maintenance company or the manufacturer can share responsibility. You generally have to show that someone was careless, or that the equipment was defective, and that this caused your injury. Most Michigan claims must be filed within 3 years (MCL 600.5805(2)), but an injury caused by a dangerous public building needs written notice to the agency within 120 days (MCL 691.1406). Michigan’s rules are in the boxes marked “In Michigan.”

The hard part is usually the proof. The maintenance logs, service tickets and video are in the hands of the building and its contractors, and their insurers handle claims like yours every day.

Hurt in an elevator or on an escalator and not sure where you stand? Get a free case review. Four quick questions, no cost, no obligation.

What goes wrong with elevators and escalators?

By the estimate of CPWR, a construction safety research center working from U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) data, U.S. hospitals treated nearly 25,000 elevator- or escalator-related injuries in 2017, the latest year in its 2018 report, up from about 19,000 in 2007 (CPWR, 2018). Older counts show how people get hurt:

• Falls. Of 91 elevator passengers outside work whose deaths the CPSC recorded from 1997 to 2010, 51 died in falls, about half of them slips and trips on the same level, especially while leaving the car, and the rest down the shaft (CPWR, 2013).
• Doors. Of 89 people who died using elevators at work from 1992 to 2009, 30 fell when a door opened with no car behind it because the hoistway interlock or door closer failed, and 29 were caught in or struck by the equipment, mostly in the door or between the car and the door or shaft. Only 6 died in collapses (CPWR, 2013, from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data). In a study of CPSC data from 1990 to 2004, a closing door was the most frequent cause of elevator injuries to young people 19 and under (as reported by CPWR, 2013).
• Escalators. The CPSC estimated about 11,000 escalator-related injuries in 2007. Most were falls, and about 10% happened when hands, feet or shoes were trapped (CPSC, 2008).

Who is responsible for an elevator or escalator accident?

A negligence claim needs four things: the defendant owed you a duty, breached it by failing to use reasonable care, and caused you real harm, such as injuries, medical bills or lost pay (in the Michigan Supreme Court’s words, “duty, breach, causation, and harm,” Kandil-Elsayed v F & E Oil, 2023). More than one party can share the blame:

• The owner, or whoever controls the building. Customers, hotel guests and tenants in shared areas are usually invitees, people there for the owner’s business, owed reasonable care against dangerous conditions the owner knew about or should have known about (in Michigan, M Civ JI 19.01, 19.03; Janini v London Townhouses Condominium Ass’n, 2024). See how premises liability works and injury claims against hotels.
• The property manager. What counts is “possession and control over the land where a person was injured, not merely who owns the land” (Janini), so a company that runs the building may share responsibility.
• The maintenance company, for careless work that makes an elevator dangerous (see the box below).
• The manufacturer or installer, for a flawed design, a defective part, missing warnings or faulty installation; see product liability claims.
• You. If you were partly at fault, your damages are usually reduced, not erased. In Michigan, a share larger than everyone else’s combined also rules out noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering (MCL 600.2959).

Not sure who owned, managed or maintained the elevator? Get a free case review. Four quick questions, no cost, no obligation.

Are elevator owners held to a higher standard?

California holds commercial elevator operators to a bus or train company’s standard: its Supreme Court has said “commercial operators of elevators are carriers of persons for reward” (Gomez v. Superior Court, 2005), who must “use the utmost care and diligence” for their passengers’ safe carriage (Cal. Civ. Code § 2100). Michigan doesn’t; other states set their own rules.

Do you have to prove exactly what failed?

Not always. Under res ipsa loquitur, Latin for “the thing speaks for itself,” Michigan lets a jury draw “a permissible inference of negligence from circumstantial evidence” (Jones v Porretta, Michigan Supreme Court, 1987). It applies when the accident is the kind that ordinarily doesn’t happen without someone’s negligence, it was caused by something within the defendant’s exclusive control, it wasn’t due to any voluntary action or contribution on your part, and the true explanation is more readily available to the defendant than to you (Woodard v Custer, Michigan Supreme Court, 2005). When an owner and a maintenance company share responsibility for an elevator, expect an argument over “exclusive control.”

What records show whether the elevator was kept safe?

The main safety code is ASME A17.1/CSA B44, which its publisher calls “the accepted guide throughout North America” for elevators and escalators, from design and installation to inspection, maintenance and repair (ASME). Michigan has made it law, and its rules require records that can show what went wrong.

What should you do after an elevator or escalator accident?

1. Get medical care, and tell every provider how you were hurt; some injuries show symptoms later.
2. Report it in writing to the building’s management, or to your employer if you were working, and get the incident-report number.
3. Write down which elevator: the building, floor, time and the serial number on the plate inside the car. For an escalator, note which one and which way it was moving.
4. Take photos of the gap between the car and the floor, the doors or the escalator step, any warning signs and your injuries, and get witnesses’ names and phone numbers.
5. Send a preservation letter, a written request that the owner or manager, and the maintenance company, keep the video, the maintenance and callback log, service tickets, inspection reports and any replaced parts; see how to preserve evidence. In Michigan, if a party that controlled important evidence fails to produce it without a reasonable excuse, jurors may be told they can infer it would have hurt that party (M Civ JI 6.01).
6. Know who inspects. In Michigan, LARA’s Elevator Section says it conducts annual safety inspections and investigates elevator accidents; its page lists a phone number and email address.

What if you were hurt at work?

Workers’ compensation is usually your only claim against your employer (in Michigan, MCL 418.131(1)). But you can often also sue someone else who is legally responsible, such as a building owner that isn’t your employer, the maintenance company or the manufacturer. In Michigan, taking comp doesn’t give up that right, and the comp insurer is generally repaid from that recovery (MCL 418.827(1), (5)). See how workers’ compensation works and when you can sue after a workplace injury.

How long do you have to file?

Every state sets its own deadlines; see injury deadlines in every state.

What to do next

1. Get care and keep every record, including bills and time missed from work.
2. Be careful with the building’s insurer. You don’t have to give it a recorded statement, and it’s safer not to before you’ve had advice; see talking to an insurance adjuster. Don’t sign a release until you know how badly you’re hurt.
3. Talk to a lawyer before the first deadline. Get a free case review, or compare Michigan injury lawyers.

What waiting can cost

• Evidence. Video can be recorded over, and an elevator can be repaired before anyone documents what failed.
• A claim over a dangerous public building. In Michigan, written notice is due within 120 days (MCL 691.1406).
• The right to sue. Most Michigan injury lawsuits must be filed within 3 years (MCL 600.5805(2)).

What a good outcome looks like

Whoever was responsible, whether the building, its manager, a maintenance company or the maker, answers for what went wrong. Your medical bills and lost pay are covered, along with harm that has no receipt, such as pain and suffering. Any share of fault assigned to you matches what actually happened, and every notice and deadline is met. From wondering whether an elevator accident was anyone’s fault to knowing who kept the elevator, what its records show and how long you have to act.

For more guides on injuries caused by unsafe property, browse slip, fall and unsafe property claims.

Updated September 29, 2026

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and laws change. For advice about your situation, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state. Reading this page or contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.