Strong, who is seeking unspecified damages, suffered a broken hip and said that the doors “were moving very rapidly, too fast.” She also believes that the hotel should have appointed an attendant at the exit, saying, “In many places, they have people pushing the doors open, to look out for the people. That’s common sense — so that people don’t fall and sue the hotel.”
As unusual as Strong’s experience may seem, there have been comparable revolving door accidents. Former San Francisco 49er player Vincent Rovetti fell and broke his hip after being struck by an automatic revolving door at a San Francisco Marriott in 1997 — Rovetti later died after suffering a heart attack during surgery. And, in 2004, a six-year-old was killed by an automatic revolving door at Mori Tower in the Roppongi Hills complex in Japan, while a South African girl, whose head was caught between a wall and a revolving door, survived.
In March of this year, Edinburgh College’s revolving doors came under scrutiny when students declined to use them because they felt unsafe. One student at the college endured broken bones when her face and arm were caught in the manually revolving door. According to James Moohan, students’ association vice-president, the doors are especially dangerous during high-traffic periods. “The risks of that door are endless,” he explained. “The students do not feel safe using it.” At the time, the school’s staff was debating replacing the doors or modifying them to reduce speeds. (As reported by the Post, in the U.S., such doors should “require about 60 to 80 pounds of pressure and they should move no faster than 15 revolutions per minute. By way of comparison, a car engine operates within a range of 2,000-3,000 rpm.”)