WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, Chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today applauded long-overdue action by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to recall tens of thousands of residential elevators that pose a deadly hazard to children.  During their confirmation hearing last summer, Cantwell secured the commitments of President Biden’s nominees to the commission, including its Chair, to prioritize addressing the safety defect that has already led to the injuries and deaths of several young children.

“Too many children have been seriously injured or killed as a result of this well-known and fixable residential elevator safety defect that allows them to become trapped under the elevator,” said Sen. Cantwell, who has been calling for action by the CPSC for years. “Today’s recall by the Consumer Product Safety Commission is a critically important step toward ensuring that residential elevators are safe and I urge all homeowners – especially those who rent their homes to guests – to implement the fix as soon as possible. I also urge those manufacturers of these defective machines, who’ve refused to work with the CPSC, to get on board immediately, before another avoidable tragedy occurs.”

“Today, CPSC is announcing progress in our long-standing effort to eliminate a deadly hazard in residential elevators that can entrap and crush children,” said CPSC Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric. “I want to thank Chair Cantwell for her dogged oversight of the issue and efforts to protect consumers.  I look forward to working with her and with other Members to warn consumers about this hazard and help homeowners access and install the simple fix that can save lives.”

For years, manufacturers have been aware that residential elevators pose a severe risk of serious injury or death to young children. Children can become trapped in a gap between the platform door and the elevator car door and can either fall down the elevator shaft or be crushed by the elevator as it moves up or down the shaft. Although there is a relatively simple and inexpensive fix, elevator manufacturers have resisted it and former CPSC leaders had taken little action to address it.

In December of 2019, then-Ranking Member Cantwell released a report on recall failures which highlighted the CSPC’s inaction following the deaths and serious injuries suffered by children in residential elevators. Following a report by the Washington Post earlier that year, Sen. Cantwell called for an independent investigation of the commission’s repeated failure to act regarding residential elevators.

On July 16, 2021, Sen. Cantwell wrote the Acting Chair of the CPSC demanding immediate action after another child was killed after becoming trapped in the gap between the doors in a residential elevator at vacation rental home.

Two weeks later, during the confirmation hearing for President Biden’s nominees to serve as commissioners to the CPSC, Chair Cantwell pressed the nominees to take long-needed action to fix what she “a deadly safety problem that both manufacturers and the CPSC have been aware of for years,” adding that “what’s worse, there is a common-sense fix that has not been implemented.”  

CPSC announced it has entered into a Corrective Action Plan (“CAP”) with three residential elevator manufacturers which includes voluntary recalls whereby consumers who own a covered elevator can contact the manufacturer and receive a space guard at no cost or have one installed at no cost. According to the CPSC, the CAP includes a comprehensive plan to publicize the recalls and to directly contact consumers, as well as dealers, distributors, installers, and servicers of subject elevators with a request that they inform consumers of the recall.