Woman found dead in elevator 30 days after power cut.

Woman found dead in elevator 30 days after power cut off by building workers

A building maintenance crew has been detained after a woman was found dead inside an elevator that had its power improperly cut off 30 days earlier, local Chinese authorities have said.

The Gaoling district government in the north-western city of Xi’an, Shaanxi province, said on Saturday that two maintenance workers turned off the power source on 30 January in a residential building after they were called to check on a glitch. However, they failed to check if anyone was inside the elevator.

The woman was identified as a 43-year-old resident who was living by herself. Police ruled out any foul play but concluded her death was caused by the gross negligence on the part of the maintenance crew in a case of involuntary manslaughter, the government said.

Source.

Worst way to die?

That's almost a month, I'm guessing dehydration is what killed her. The fact she lived alone did not help as no one would be looking for her.

:(

Damn, that's one way to die.

She didn't have a phone on her?

Thirty day old dead body. What a sight.

Geez, poor woman. No one heard her or anything?

That's a terrible way to go

Would it have mattered?

How did the day or two she maybe spent kicking around screaming that nobody heard her? I take it they don't have emergency phones on elevators either? or if so, are those supposed to be operable without power. Most landlines operate on their own power source separate from the local power utility. Or maybe it was so pitch black she couldn't see. Too bad she wasn't smoker, a lighter is a great source of light when you're in a pinch.

there a feature phones have for times of emergencies, the most helpful of all is the 9-1-1 feature.

(I cant believe this needs to be explained. I can give you a fully charge phone, no... TWO fully charged phones and you would probably die in an elevator too.)

Mobile phones don't work in elevators because the latter work as Faraday cages. Unless your phone can transceive signals with hard x-rays you won't be able to call or receive calls.

I can't believe this needs to be explained either but apparently physics don't matter. You could have every phone ever made of every manufacturer and you would still die.

Huh? Really? I am quite sure I have used my cellphone in an elevator. Though I could be wrong... I use an elevator maybe twice a year.

Technically any metal enclosure is a Faraday cage. That's the reason why your microwave oven doesn't fry you if you stand close to it.

Most elevators either have metal cages themselves and/or outside of them, in their support structure. The only elevators I know that don't, are the ones you usually see in movies that are made of plastic glass where you can see the outside, but those are rather costly and only rarely present in private buildings.

lies... I made calls and texted from inside elevators cuz I've been taking multiple different elevators for the last 3 years atleast 4 times a week 4 times a day. Secondly, even if a phone is disconnected from a service provider 9-1-1 still works for all phones. You can go grab an old phone of yours right now (a 2004 Nokia, a 2005 Razer, a 2007 SideKick) that is not under any phone number or service provider and dial 9-1-1 and you can reach them right now.

Please man, I dont want you to die. Im trying to save you.

Calls to 911 work differently because there's a telephone infrastructure built specifically for emergency calls, that doesn't mean calling 911 can overcome the laws of physics. Try and dial 911 and put the phone in your microwave oven. See how that works for you.

But my microwave has a glass or plastic door... :P

Anyhow isn't it required that there is a electrical current going through for it to be a Faraday cage?

No.

@loco145:Thanks for the enlightenment :)

@magicalclick: We're talking about china here aren't we?

And because it is China, the elevators like pretty much everything in that country were not designed nor built with safety in mind. So yeah, this happened mostly because it's China.

Yikes.

Poor woman.

Hmm... I find it interesting that no one heard her kicking and screaming for help. I can imagine that the first day or two, she would be trying to grab someone's attention. I would be inclined to think she suffered a panic attack which lead to a heart attack. Then it would have been very easy to not notice she was in there. Also, I wonder why it took 30 days to check on the status of an elevator... gross negligence indeed.

It's horrible way to die.. it's sad.