RESIDENTIAL ELEVATORS, INC. CALLS ON CONGRESS, SEN. CANTWELL TO ENACT NEW NATIONAL BUILDING REQUIREMENTS FOR HOME ELEVATOR SAFETY; ANNOUNCES VOLUNTARY RECALL TO REMOVE HAZARDOUS GAPS FOUND BEHIND HOME ELEVATOR LANDING DOORS

Swift Action is Needed to Avoid Deaths to Children

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Aug. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Residential Elevators, Inc. announced today that it is taking on an industry-leading role to advocate for a national building requirement for home elevator safety to prevent potentially deadly entrapment hazards to children. The company calls on Congress, and Senate Commerce Committee Chair Sen. Cantwell (D – WA), to take swift action.

Residential Elevators, Inc. is also announcing a voluntary recall, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), to inspect and remedy hazardous gaps that may be found behind the landing doors on each floor and the elevator door.

These hazardous gaps are due to the landing doors being placed too far from the elevator door at the time of home construction. During home construction, any gap between each landing door and the elevator door must be reduced as much as possible, ideally to where there is no gap or any gap present is as close to 0" as possible.

Unfortunately, despite increased awareness of this issue, many homes continue to be built today where the distance between the elevator shaft and the landing doors on each floor creates a large, hazardous gap. The only safe solution is a new national requirement that includes mandatory inspections that can address the patchwork of state building codes as they relate to residential elevators. Currently, in numerous cases, these state building codes do not minimize the hazardous gap to a safe distance.

Residential Elevators is taking three important steps to protect children:

(1)    Residential Elevators, Inc. calls on Congress and Commerce Committee Chair Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) to immediately advance and pass a new law creating a national building law that addresses residential elevator safety. This call advances the effort of former CPSC Acting Chairman Buerkle (R) to state Governors requesting that they modernize their patchwork of state building code requirements on home elevator installations.  States have delayed action for far too long.

Residential Elevators, Inc. appreciates Sen. Cantwell's leadership on this issue and hopes to join her in lending its support for a bi-partisan bill that would ensure that young children in all states are protected – and not only those states, like Florida, that have already taken action to incorporate these requirements directly into their building code.

(2)    Residential Elevators, Inc. calls on home builders across the nation to ensure that landing doors in newly constructed home elevator shafts are installed such that the space between those landing doors and the elevator door are as close to 0" as possible and, in all installations, that they always reject a 4" sphere, a key code requirement, even where not required by individual state building codes.

(3)    Residential Elevators, Inc. announces that it is joining the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in a joint announcement of a voluntary recall to inspect and, if needed, remedy hazardous gaps that may be found behind the landing doors on each floor and the elevator door. Residential Elevators will voluntarily provide additional safety hardware and technical support to its customers, going above and beyond the safety codes which the company followed at the time of original installation. This voluntary effort will be free to its customers.

As the proud industry leader in safety, Residential Elevators stand ready to support bipartisan efforts to enact a new national safety law requiring that elevator shafts and landing doors on each floor are built in such a manner that young children are not placed at risk of entrapment, serious injury, or death. 

Residential Elevators is the nation's leader in home elevator manufacturing and installation. The top choice of leaders in the construction and development community, as well as for individual homeowners, Residential Elevators is a family-owned company and is the only large home elevator company in the U.S. that also installs and services the vast majority of its elevators. Residential Elevators has proudly been installing elevators in compliance with all applicable state safety codes throughout its history.

SOURCE Residential Elevators, Inc.