Stretcher elevators are a necessity for residential towers; here's why

Recently I carried out a safety audit of elevators in a 33 storied residential complex. To my surprise there is no stretcher elevator in any of the towers. But we can't raise our voice as there is no rule, which makes the stretcher elevator a compulsory one for high-rise buildings.

There is no lift rule, fire rules or municipal norms for having a stretcher elevator for high-rise buildings, except NBC code 2016, which simply recommends a bigger size elevator to accommodate a stretcher.

This forced me to draw the attention of architects, builders, building approving government authorities, elevator inspecting authorities and the end users towards the need of a stretcher elevator and its importance.

One can imagine a situation where a patient with an attached intake system for glucose / blood / oxygen or any deceased person’s body, needs to be shifted from the ground floor to the upper floor or otherwise.

How difficult could the situation be, while shifting a patient? How inhuman and disrespectful could the situation be, while shifting a deceased person’s body?

In our culture the deceased person’s body is always given due respect. But think of the situation where due to lack of space it is carried out, somehow, in the available limited space of the elevator cabin.

It is a common practice in high rise buildings to designate one elevator as a goods / service elevator by the builder or users. But the inner dimensions of the designated service elevator are not always enough to accommodate a stretcher.

The dimensions of a standard stretcher elevator cabin are 1000 mm wide x 2400 mm deep and the elevator duct size required to accommodate a stretcher elevator is minimum 1800 mm wide x 3000 mm deep.

If we compare the building space required for a stretcher elevator and a standard 13 passenger elevator, it comes to around 0.64 square metres, which is just nothing as compared to the overall construction area of any high-rise building.

The 13-passenger elevator area required is 2.5 metres x 1.9 metres, whereas the stretcher elevator requirement is 1.8 metres x 3.0 metres. The difference is just 0.64 square metres.

The cost difference between a standard 13 passenger elevator and a stretcher elevator is also not much. The elevator duct area is not considered under the building FSI and therefore the area utilised for the elevator should not be a problem for the builder except for a small cost difference.

Still, we compromise with the practical issues and put the users to great inconvenience. There are places where the size of the elevator cabin is as per stretcher requirement but the load carrying capacity of the elevator is only 8 passengers. This serves the purpose of the stretcher elevator requirement at the same time helps to save some money on account of reduced capacity/ load.

This shortcut or clever approach creates problems and sometimes leads to an accident. As the area is big, passengers try to enter the elevator as much as the space permits. But as the machine and other equipment are designed for the load equal to only stretcher, patient and attendant, it does not take the actual load, leading to forced stop or freefall or serious accident.

Some time back there was an accident reported in Mumbai where an overcrowded elevator fell down. This is because the elevator was of bigger size to accommodate a stretcher but its capacity was very less than the load capacity required for a stretcher elevator. The best and easiest way to overcome the above issue is to make stretcher elevator provision compulsory through the lift rules by the regulatory authority.

(The writer is an elevator auditor, founder of the Elevator Safety Forum India, plus an active member of the National Safety Council and Society for Reliability and Safety)