33 and subsequent amendments does not require that those who intervene to free people be licensed lift operators. In principle, it could be anyone, provided they are trained for this purpose and authorised by the owner. If an untrained person wants to intervene, not only do they do so at their own risk, but they may also endanger the lives of others, as well as the integrity of the system. A tragic example of this occurred in Rome in 2015 when an ATAC worker attempted to rescue a 4-year-old child and his mother who were trapped in the Furio Camillo metro lift. The man pulled up alongside with another lift and opened the access panel. The child, who had escaped from his mother, unfortunately fell into the gap and lost his life. The worker, who was not trained to carry out the rescue operation, was subsequently convicted of manslaughter. The regulations stipulate that it must be technically possible to free trapped persons in all lifts once a request for assistance has been received. This means that every lift must have an emergency manoeuvre for this purpose. In the case of hydraulic lifts, the manoeuvre is very simple: it consists of activating, by pressing a button, a system of valves that allows the car to be lowered to the nearest floor. At that point, the doors can be opened and people can exit safely. In traditional electric lifts, which have a winch located in a machine room, it is generally sufficient to release the brake to move the car (carefully!) in one direction or the other and reach a floor where people can get out. If the car does not move, the flywheel can be turned manually, which usually achieves the desired result. Today, electric lifts are very common, but they have the machine, mostly consisting of an electric motor without a gearbox, in the upper part of the shaft and not in a special room (Machine Room Less, MRL), and here things become more complex. In many cases, it is possible to control the opening of the brake from the outside, i.e. from the landing where the control panel or part of it is located, but this operation must be carried out with great care, because the absence of a gearbox means that the car can move very quickly, posing a potential danger. In other cases, the emergency manoeuvre will be electric, controlled by a battery. In all cases where we have referred to batteries, it is clear that they are assumed to be charged, otherwise electrical operations would not be possible. In some cases, battery charge is monitored remotely, but in most cases this is not the case, making it necessary to check them periodically on site during normal maintenance activities. However, it should be noted that, at present, the frequency of maintenance visits, in Italy, has been significantly reduced, so it is to be hoped that the battery charge will last long enough to ensure operation until the next check. Some companies do not waste time checking battery charge levels and replace them during every visit, even several times a year, which is highly questionable from an environmental point of view (these are hazardous waste and must be treated as such), but less so from a commercial point of view. A critical aspect to consider is what could happen during a very extensive blackout: lifts in large areas could stop simultaneously, resulting in hundreds or thousands of people being trapped. It is clear that, in such a scenario, the time taken to free people will be longer. Although some delay is inevitable, it is important that this does not take on dramatic proportions. If the company is well organised, it could have one qualified technician for every hundred lifts. If necessary, it could mobilise all available staff on an exceptional basis. Assuming that the blackout occurs at a time when only 10% of the cars are occupied, each technician would only have to intervene in ten entrapment situations. Under normal traffic conditions, this could realistically take about six hours. If, as is unfortunately more likely today, each technician is responsible for 200 lifts, the number of interventions would double, along with response times, making the situation unacceptable. If the blackout were to occur during peak hours, i.e. when vertical traffic is high, the impact would become significantly more critical. It is true that, in addition to lift technicians, the fire brigade and, if trained, civil protection personnel can also intervene to free trapped people, not to mention caretakers or people of good will, provided they have been properly trained to carry out emergency manoeuvres. A final aspect to consider concerns the possible effects of the progressive electrification of lift companies’ fleets. It would be desirable for the batteries of company electric vehicles to be fully charged in the event of a blackout. This is particularly relevant considering that not all lifts are located in urban areas; some lifts may be located in suburban areas. If the batteries are flat at the time of an emergency, the ability to intervene would be seriously compromised, with easily imaginable consequences. * General manager Koppel A.W.
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