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Recent Study on Elevator Injuries to Seniors Shows Accidents Can be Prevented

Every year on average 2,600 senior citizens suffer elevator related injuries in the United States some of which range from anything from fractures and bruises to more serious injuries which can be disabling or even life threatening. 

According to a study that was recently done more than half of the elevator injuries were because of slips, trips and falls. About a third of them were caused by elevator doors closing on the person and the rest were because of canes and walkers getting wedged in the elevator door openings. 

Serious injuries can happen if a person of any age gets injured by an elevator but the injuries can be worse to the elderly because their bones are more frail than those of other ages. 

Greg Steele, an associate professor of epidemiology in the department of public health at the Indiana University School of Medicine, suggests that there are plenty of ways to make elevators safer for everyone, especially senior citizens.  One suggestion that Steele offered was making the "open doors" button larger and more unique looking than the surrounding buttons to help a person inside of the elevator to quickly find the button to avoid a persons body from becoming closed on by the elevator doors.