Otis Elevator agrees to safety campaign

PORTLAND – Otis Elevator Co. will launch a national safety campaign for old elevators with swinging doors as part of a settlement with the family of an 8-year-old boy who was crushed in an elevator in Maine.

Jeffrey and Mary Smith of Bel Air, Md., dropped their lawsuit against Otis Elevator, the Bethel Inn and Pine State Elevator inspection company in exchange for $3 million and a plan to prevent future deaths on the elevators.

“Originally we thought this was a freak accident,” Jeffrey Smith told The Associated Press before a news conference announcing the settlement. “But once we found there had been other tragedies, we decided to try to prevent them from happening to anybody else.”

Tucker Smith was killed on Aug. 23, 2001, when he became trapped in the space between the outer swinging door and inner collapsible gate of a 1929 elevator at the Bethel Inn, where his family was on vacation.

The outer door closed behind Tucker, trapping him in a 71/2-inch space just as the elevator was called to the floor above. When the elevator rose, Tucker was crushed between the car and the second-floor landing.

His twin sister, his older sister and his parents all witnessed Tucker’s gruesome injuries when the elevator door opened. The children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to court documents.

An Associated Press analysis in September determined that the dangers of that style of elevator, which was popular before the 1950s, have been known for more than 70 years. At least nine children have been killed – four of them since 1998 – after becoming trapped between the doors of the elevators.

Compounding the problem is that simple safety modifications recommended more than 15 years ago by engineers who set industry standards have not been written into regulatory laws in most states. And where they have, the enforcement is sometimes lax.

Nobody knows for sure how many swinging-door elevators are in the United States, but industry officials say thousands of them continue to operate in apartment houses, hotels, offices and other buildings.

Terry Garmey, a Portland attorney for the Smith family, called the elevator design a “guillotine with call buttons.”

Tucker Smith “died in an elevator we were to learn was in fact a serial killer in our midst,” Garmey said.

The problem can be remedied by installing a “space guard,” a metal boxlike piece that bolts onto an elevator’s outer door to fill up the space so people cannot become trapped between the doors.

Under the settlement, Connecticut-based Otis Elevator is required to notify customers, regulators and others of the danger posed by the excessive space in the doors. It will lobby state and local regulatory agencies for new regulations to make the elevators safer.

It will install space guards at no cost to owners of swinging-door elevators manufactured or maintained by Otis, and create a Web site with information regarding space guards, safety recommendations and legislative updates.

Hubert Hayes, owner of Hubert H. Hayes Inc. elevator consultants in New York, said the agreement is unprecedented in the elevator industry and should help to prevent future accidents.

“I think everybody who has knowledge in the industry would like to get rid of them,” he said. “We all know this is a dangerous situation.”

Jeffrey Smith said the settlement was a collaborative effort with Otis Elevator. Ray Moncini, president of the North and South American division of Otis Elevator, even met with him and his lawyers for two hours in October to discuss a safety campaign, Smith said.

Otis spokeswoman Tizz Weber said campaign materials began arriving Thursday at Otis maintenance and sales offices to help identify where the dangerous elevators are located so they can be fixed. She declined to say how much the safety campaign is estimated to cost.

“We admire the family’s selfless approach to resolve the suit,” Weber said. “The launch of the campaign will hopefully keep a tragic situation like this from happening again.”

Smith said his family has set up a table in their Maryland home with Tucker’s trophies, photos, toy dinosaurs, drawings and other belongings. His wife is scheduled to give birth to a boy in early February.

Smith and his wife have become involved in The Compassionate Friends organization that offers support to those who have lost children.

The group includes parents whose children have died of disease, in car wrecks and other causes. Smith said he and his wife most identify with parents whose children have been murdered.

“We have anger,” Smith said. “What happened to us should never happen to anybody.”

The settlement also calls for Otis Elevator, Pine State Elevator and the Bethel Inn to pay a total of $3 million, $1 million of which will go to the family’s attorneys.

Jeffrey and Mary Smith will receive $1 million, and Tucker’s sisters, Mara and Ellie, are to receive $500,000 each, which will be put in trust accounts.