According to Emirates 24/7, a Filipino worker at a restaurant in the Salimiya neighborhood of Kuwait City lost some of his fingers after they became caught between the elevator and the elevator door on Monday, March 4, 2013.
Kuwait police described the elevator as “lacking minimum safety standards”, and the article notes that emergency personnel “had to smash the lift’s door” to release the man. Read the reporting article, published March 4, 2013.
Typically, elevators have door reopening devices such as “safety edges” or “scanner edges” which detect obstructions in the path of the door. A “safety edge” is typically a rubber bumper that retracts when it comes into contact with an obstruction. A “scanner edge” uses beams of light to detect when a beam is interrupted by an obstruction. However, even when these devices are present, there is still the possibility that something as small as a human finger could become entrapped between the outer hoistway doors.
Generally speaking, door entrapment accidents result in severe injuries if the elevator runs while the unsafe condition exists. Similar door entrapment incidents have occurred in the past when garments such as scarfs become entrapped and the elevator runs, leading to strangulation.