Injured during an elevator or escalator accident in Bakersfield, CA? Contact the top Bakersfield elevator & escalator accident lawyer today.
Elevators and escalators move millions of Californians safely each day, but neglected maintenance and mechanical failures still cause thousands of preventable injuries. Property owners, maintenance companies, and manufacturers must inspect and repair these systems regularly to keep riders safe. When they fail, victims can suffer serious harm such as fractures, head injuries, or long-term mobility loss.
At Kuzyk Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers, our Bakersfield elevator & escalator accident lawyers investigate elevator and escalator accidents by reviewing maintenance logs, inspection reports, and equipment records to identify every liable party.
Our experienced personal injury attorneys handle premise liability cases involving sudden drops, entrapments, and misleveled cars that lead to dangerous falls. With decades of experience in Kern County, we know how to build strong claims and recover compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and ongoing care needs.
California’s Elevator and Escalator Injury Laws
California law treats elevators and escalators as common carriers. This means that operators must take extra care to keep passengers safe, which is a higher standard than in cases of ordinary negligence. Landlords can’t just say they took reasonable care; they have to show they did everything they could to prevent accidents.
Common carriers have strict rules requiring them to keep their equipment in good working order. When they don’t meet this higher duty of care, injured passengers have more substantial legal grounds to claim damages.
The law also says that anyone who is getting on or off the elevator or escalator is a passenger. Your legal protection lasts until you have had enough time to safely leave the equipment without getting hurt.
Contact us for a free consultation and discover how our award-winning injury attorneys can help you seek compensation and justice.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for Elevator and Escalator Accidents
Multiple parties often share responsibility when elevator or escalator malfunctions cause injuries. Identifying all liable defendants is crucial for maximizing your potential recovery and ensuring you receive full compensation for your damages.
Property owners and building managers have the primary duty to ensure visitors’ safety. They must arrange for regular inspections, prompt repairs, and proper maintenance of all elevator and escalator systems on their premises.
Maintenance companies contracted to service the equipment can face liability for negligent work. If their failure to properly inspect, repair, or maintain the system contributes to your accident, they become responsible for the resulting injuries.
Manufacturers may be liable under product liability laws if design defects or manufacturing flaws caused the malfunction. Installation companies can also be held responsible if improper installation results in equipment failure and passenger injuries.
What Constitutes Negligence in Elevator and Escalator Cases
Negligence occurs when responsible parties breach their duty of care through action or inaction. In elevator and escalator cases, negligence often involves failures in design, maintenance, or safety protocols that create foreseeable risks for passengers.
Common examples of negligence include:
- Flawed Design: Equipment that moves too fast, stops abruptly, or lacks proper safety features.
- Poor Maintenance: Skipping scheduled inspections, ignoring known problems, or using substandard replacement parts.
- Manufacturing Defects: Faulty components that fail during regular operation.
- Inadequate Safety Measures: Missing warning signs, broken emergency communications, or non-functional safety devices.
Property owners and manufacturers must guarantee passenger safety from any reasonably foreseeable hazard. Mechanical failures resulting from deferred maintenance or design flaws constitute explicit acts of negligence under California premises liability law.
An Experienced California Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help with Your Escalator or Elevator Case
Insurance companies employ teams of investigators and experts specifically to minimize payouts on elevator and escalator claims. You need an experienced attorney who understands how to counter these tactics and negotiate effectively for fair compensation.
The types of damages available in escalator and elevator injury cases fall into two main categories. Economic losses include measurable financial impacts like medical expenses, lost income, and costs for ongoing care or disability assistance.
Non-economic damages cover impacts that cannot be easily quantified in dollars. These include physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of life enjoyment, and compensation for wrongful death when families lose loved ones in fatal accidents.
Our California personal injury lawyers have recovered substantial settlements for elevator and escalator accident victims. We understand the technical aspects of these cases and work with qualified experts to build compelling evidence of negligence and damages.
Common Causes of Elevator Accidents in Bakersfield
Elevator accidents typically stem from mechanical failures or maintenance negligence that creates dangerous conditions for passengers. Understanding these common causes helps establish the foundation for proving liability in your injury claim.
Misleveling occurs when the elevator car fails to stop flush with the floor, creating a dangerous gap or height difference. This condition causes numerous slip and fall injuries as passengers attempt to enter or exit the car.
Door malfunctions represent another frequent source of elevator injuries. Doors that close too quickly, fail to detect obstructions, or malfunction completely can crush passengers or trap them between floors.
Control system failures, cable problems, or brake malfunctions cause sudden stops or drops. These incidents can throw passengers violently against walls or floors, causing serious impact injuries throughout the body.
Electrical problems can lead to power failures that trap passengers between floors for extended periods. In severe cases, exposed wiring or control panel malfunctions can cause electrocution injuries or fires within the elevator car.
Common Causes of Escalator Accidents in Bakersfield
Escalator accidents often involve entrapment injuries when clothing, shoelaces, or body parts become caught in the moving machinery. These incidents can cause severe lacerations, crushing injuries, or even amputations requiring emergency medical intervention.
Sudden stops or direction reversals create chain-reaction falls as multiple passengers lose their balance simultaneously. These mass casualty events can result in numerous serious injuries from falls and passenger collisions.
Missing or broken comb plates at the top and bottom landings create gaps where feet or objects can become trapped. Worn or damaged steps create unstable surfaces, increasing fall risk for all passengers using the escalator.
Handrail malfunctions pose significant safety hazards when the moving rail fails to provide adequate support. Loose, slippery, or improperly synchronized handrails can cause passengers to lose balance and fall down the moving steps.
Serious Injuries from Elevator and Escalator Accidents
The mechanical forces involved in elevator and escalator malfunctions can cause catastrophic injuries requiring extensive medical treatment and long-term care. These accidents often result in multiple types of trauma affecting different body systems simultaneously.
Fractures and crush injuries commonly occur when passengers become trapped in doors or escalator mechanisms. These injuries may require multiple surgeries, extended rehabilitation, and can result in permanent disability or disfigurement.
Head and brain injuries frequently result from falls or sudden stops that throw passengers against hard surfaces. Traumatic brain injuries can cause lasting cognitive impairment, personality changes, and require lifelong medical management.
Spinal cord injuries represent one of the most devastating consequences of elevator and escalator accidents. These injuries can result in partial or complete paralysis, fundamentally altering your ability to work and enjoy life.
Psychological trauma often accompanies physical injuries, particularly after entrapment incidents or falls. Many victims develop anxiety disorders, claustrophobia, or post-traumatic stress that requires professional mental health treatment.
What Damages Can You Recover After an Elevator or Escalator Accident
California law allows injury victims to seek compensation for all ways an accident has impacted their lives. Economic damages cover measurable financial losses, including medical bills, rehabilitation costs, and lost wages from missed work time.
Future medical expenses represent a significant component of many elevator and escalator injury claims. Severe injuries often require ongoing treatment, adaptive equipment, home modifications, and long-term care services that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Lost earning capacity damages apply when injuries prevent you from returning to your previous job or limit your ability to advance in your career. These calculations consider your age, education, work history, and the extent of your permanent limitations.
Non-economic damages compensate for pain, suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life. California does not cap these damages in most personal injury cases, allowing juries to award compensation that truly reflects the impact on your quality of life.
Punitive damages may be available in cases involving extreme negligence or willful misconduct. These awards are designed to punish defendants and deter similar behavior in the future.
Steps to Take After an Elevator or Escalator Accident
Your actions immediately after an accident can significantly impact both your health outcomes and the strength of your legal case. Prompt medical attention should be your priority, even if injuries seem minor initially.
Report the incident to property management immediately and insist they preserve any surveillance footage of the accident. Request a copy of the incident report and ensure all details are accurately documented before leaving the scene.
Photograph the accident scene, the specific defect or condition that caused your injury, and any visible injuries you sustained. Collect contact information from any witnesses who saw the accident occur.
Seek medical evaluation as soon as possible to create documentation linking your injuries to the incident. Follow all treatment recommendations and keep detailed records of medical appointments, expenses, and how injuries affect your daily activities.
Contact an experienced elevator and escalator accident lawyer before speaking with insurance companies or signing any documents. Early legal intervention helps protect crucial evidence and prevents you from making statements that could harm your case.
How We Investigate Elevator and Escalator Accident Claims
Building a successful case requires a thorough investigation of the technical and legal factors that contributed to your accident. Our legal team works with qualified experts to analyze all aspects of the equipment failure and establish clear liability.
We immediately secure maintenance records, inspection logs, and service contracts to identify patterns of neglect or known problems. These documents often reveal whether responsible parties ignored warning signs or deferred necessary repairs.
Surveillance footage provides crucial evidence of how the accident occurred and the severity of the impact forces involved. We act quickly to preserve this evidence before it can be destroyed or overwritten by security systems.
Expert analysis of the equipment helps determine whether mechanical failures resulted from design defects, manufacturing flaws, or maintenance negligence. Engineering experts can reconstruct the accident sequence and identify specific code violations that contributed to the incident.
We also investigate the defendant’s history of similar incidents and safety violations. Previous accidents or citations can demonstrate a pattern of negligence that strengthens your compensation claim.
California’s Statute of Limitations for Elevator and Escalator Accidents
You have two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit against private property owners and maintenance companies. This deadline is strictly enforced, and missing it typically bars you from seeking any compensation through the court system.
Government entities have much shorter deadlines that can trap unwary accident victims. If your accident occurred on government property, you must file a formal claim within six months of the incident.
These deadlines begin running from the date you discovered or should have discovered your injury. In most cases, this means the accident date, but delayed-onset injuries may extend the filing period under certain circumstances.
Evidence preservation becomes critical as time passes after your accident. Maintenance records may be destroyed, witnesses may become unavailable, and surveillance footage is often overwritten within weeks or months.
Elevator and Escalator Accident FAQs
Can I Sue if I Was Injured While Trespassing on the Property?
Property owners generally do not owe a duty of care to trespassers, but there are exceptions. If the owner knew you were present and did not object to your presence, liability may still apply. Children injured by attractive nuisances may also have valid claims regardless of trespassing status.
What Compensation Is Available for Being Trapped in a Broken Elevator?
You can recover damages for emotional distress and any physical injuries resulting from entrapment. Medical documentation of anxiety, claustrophobia, or PTSD strengthens these claims. The length of entrapment and circumstances involved affect potential compensation amounts.
How Long Do I Have to File a Claim Against a Government Building Owner?
Government entities require formal notice within six months of your accident date. This deadline is much shorter than the two-year limit for private defendants and is strictly enforced. Missing this deadline typically means you lose your right to compensation.
Contact a Bakersfield Elevator & Escalator Accident Lawyer Today
If you suffered injuries in an elevator or escalator accident, do not wait to seek legal representation. At Kuzyk Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers, we offer free consultations to evaluate your case and explain your legal options without any financial obligation.
Our team operates on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay no attorney fees unless we secure compensation for your injuries. We handle all case expenses and legal work while you focus on your medical recovery and rehabilitation.
Time is critical in these cases for preserving evidence and meeting legal deadlines. Contact our Bakersfield office today at (661) 945-6969 or visit us at 5300 California Ave, Suite 220g, Bakersfield, CA 93309. We are available 24/7 to discuss your case and begin fighting for the compensation you deserve.
