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It's Monday morning
今天是星期一早上，
and you're back at work after a weekend of sweet, sweet freedom.
你在度过了一个甜蜜自由的周末后又回到了工作岗位。
With coffee in hand you walk into the elevator lobby and then step into the first available car going up.
你手里拿着咖啡，走进电梯厅，然后踏进第一辆可用的电梯。
After thirty seconds of moving steadily upwards, your elevator suddenly jolts to a stop.
在平稳地向上移动30秒后，你的电梯突然停了下来。
Confused, you press the button for your floor again but the elevator doesn't respond.
你感到很困惑，你再次按下你所在楼层的按钮，但电梯没有反应。
Then, suddenly, you hear something very worrisome-
然后，突然，你听到一些非常令人不安的声音-
a distinct snapping sound
明显的断裂声，
followed by a loud crashing sound against the top of your elevator.
紧接着你的电梯顶部出现了一个巨大的撞击声。
You realize that one of the steel cables holding the elevator up has snapped, and come crashing down the shaft.
你知道支撑电梯的一根钢索断了，电梯井遭到了撞击。
You can hear a second cable starting to break, and nervously you reach for your cell phone-
你可以听到第二根电缆开始断开，你紧张地拿出手机-
you need help, and you need it now!
你需要帮助，立刻就需要帮助！
Unfortunately you never changed your cell phone service provider from T-mobile,
不幸的是，你从来没有改变过T-mobile的手机服务提供商，
so you don't normally get service through a wet paper towel,
即使是蒙住湿纸巾的手机都通常没网，
let alone the steel walls of the elevator and the concrete shaft beyond it.
更不用说受到电梯的钢壁和电梯后面的水泥井的阻挡了。
In a full-blown panic now, you reach for the emergency call box, a land line that's typically wired directly to emergency services,
你非常恐慌，伸手去拿紧急呼叫箱，这是一条通常直接连接到紧急服务的陆上通讯线，
but as you open the box you're horrified to discover that T-mobile runs this line too!
但当你打开紧急呼叫箱时，你会惊恐地发现这条线路也是依靠T-mobile运行的！
Even the landline has no service, because T-mobile!
即使是陆上通讯线也没有服务，因为运营商是T-mobile！
Now you hear three more cables snap,
现在你又听到三根钢缆断了，
and in a heartbeat, you're stuck inside an elevator very quickly plummeting to the basement level.
一瞬间，被困在电梯里的会很快就坠落到负一层。
Can you survive the next few seconds?
你能撑过接下来的几秒钟吗？
Can you really survive a falling elevator?!
你真的能在坠落的电梯里活下来吗？！
Every year ten million people die from falling elevators.
每年有一千万人死于电梯坠落。
Just kidding,
我是在开玩笑，
elevators are actually one of the safest methods of transportation, and have a fatality rate of .00000015% per trip.
电梯实际上是最安全的交通工具之一，每次乘坐电梯的死亡率为0.00000015%。
In the United States, only 27 people die on average each year in elevator accidents,
在美国，平均每年只有27人死于电梯事故，
and almost all of these either involve people accidentally stepping into an empty elevator shaft due to a door malfunction,
而且几乎所有这些事故要么是由于门故障而不小心踩空坠入电梯井，
or getting caught between a floor and the moving elevator.
要么是夹在地板和正在移动的电梯之间。
The latter can be quite horrific, as the upwards or downwards moving elevator shears the victim in half.
后者可能相当可怕，因为向上或向下移动的电梯会将受害者切成两半。
The good news is that almost no fatalities occur due to elevators actually falling,
好消息是，几乎没有人死于电梯实际坠落，
which is pretty impressive given the estimated 18 billion elevator trips Americans take every year.
每年估计有180亿美国人乘坐电梯，这样的消息令人赞叹
Compare that to the 12,000 people who die every year from falling down stairs.
与之相比，每年有1.2万人死于从楼梯上摔下来。
That's right, stairs are the real killer here, and right now they're plotting to end you.
没错，楼梯才是真正的杀手，现在他们正密谋要杀了你。
Just think about that the next time your friend shames you for wanting to take the elevator up two flights instead of the stairs,
想想看，下次你的朋友羞辱你，只是因为你想坐电梯上两层楼，而不走楼梯，
you’re not being lazy, you’re just playing the odds on how not to die.
你不是在偷懒，你只是在图谋求生。
So what are the odds realistically that an elevator would fall out of control?
那么现实中电梯失控的几率有多大呢？
Well, pretty negligible to be honest.
嗯，老实说，几乎可以忽略不计。
The vast majority of accidents that have occurred due to falling elevators have almost all been during the construction phase, or during maintenance,
由于电梯坠落而发生的绝大多数事故几乎都发生在施工阶段，或者在维修期间，
when some key safety features may not have been implemented yet or taken offline temporarily.
这时一些关键的安全设施可能还没有实施或者暂时离线。
Before the elevator falls, it must suffer a failure of all four to eight cables which keep it held aloft.
在电梯坠落之前，要有四到八根使它保持在高处的缆绳发生故障。
That's because just one of those cables is strong enough on its own to hold the elevator,
这是因为其中一根缆绳本身就足以支撑电梯，
so unless they all go, there's just no way that elevator is going to come crashing down.
所以除非它们都断开，否则电梯就不可能坠毁。
If by some miracle all of the cables keeping the elevator suspended are sheared off,
如果发生了奇迹，所有保持电梯悬浮的钢缆都断开了，
perhaps because of Godzilla or Decepticon attack in your city,
也许是因为哥斯拉或者霸天虎在你的城市发动了攻击，
then the elevator must still experience a failure of the electromagnetic brakes on the car itself.
然后电梯本身一定还遇到了电磁制动器失灵的情况。
These brakes are designed to automatically kick in when the elevator exceeds a certain speed, making them almost foolproof.
当电梯超过一定速度时，这些制动器会自动启动，几乎是万无一失。
They can even slow a free falling car down within just two or three stories, making the odds of a catastrophic crash pretty low.
他们甚至可以让一辆自由下落的电梯在两三层楼的范围内减速，从而使发生灾难性电梯坠井的几率非常低。
Automatic switches on the track itself can also kick in if an elevator is moving too fast and help stop the car.
如果电梯运行过快，轨道上的自动开关也会启动，帮助停止电梯。
If though all these should fail,
如果所有这些都失灵了，
then finally at the bottom there is typically a crash pad of sorts
那么最后在底部有一个典型的缓冲垫，
which is designed to crumple when struck by an elevator and help decelerate the elevator to what is hopefully survivable speeds.
当被电梯撞击时，缓冲垫会被压碎，并帮助电梯减速到有希望存活的速度。
In fact many modern automobiles feature crumple zones, or areas on the front of the vehicle
事实上，许多现代汽车的特点是前部拥有撞击力吸收区域，
that are designed to give way structurally in a high speed collision and 'crumple', thus reducing the kinetic energy being transferred to the cab, and inevitably, you.
这种设计旨在高速碰撞时在结构上躲避，从而减少了传递到驾驶室的动能，以及不可避免的受伤。
Hydraulic lift elevators lack some of these safety features, but these elevators only have a maximum height of three to four stories.
液压电梯缺乏一些这样的安全功能，但这些电梯的最大高度只有三到四层。
You can often find these elevators in apartment buildings,
你经常可以在公寓楼里找到这些电梯，
and due to their limited height, even if one of these were to fail there's little chance of the fall being fatal.
由于它们的高度有限，即使其中一部电梯发生故障，坠落致死的可能性也很小。
