30% chance to get stuck

There are over 5 million web-pages about fear and getting stuck in elevators. If you have an elevator at home and at work, it’s almost guaranteed that at least one of them will get stuck once a year, and most chances are that it will trap people inside it. If you use the elevator both at work and at home, you have over 30% chance to get stuck at least once in your life.

Yet, not a lot of people have fear of elevators. The fear of elevators can stem from a tendency to shortness of breath in some situations. For example when swimming deep into the sea, or when stuck in a closed place… it’s quite scary and unpleasant. Especially if your lift is not well maintained, has a tendency to get stuck often, and when there’s not many people around to notice and rescue once you’re stuck.

The fear of elevators usually develops from a rational thought about the structure of our lifts today. Why the hell does this big metal box need to lock us in without being able to get out on our own? When you have shortness of breath, or any other troublesome medical condition, you do not have time to lose, even if the rescue is heading out in your direction right away.

It usually takes a few minutes to a few dozens of minutes for someone to notice the ringing of the elevator, and the average rescue time is 40 minutes.

The SOS Box app allows you to notify another selected person, or some selected people, if you got in the elevator and did not leave within 2-3 minutes. And so there are those who will immediately call the rescue, and also know if you may be in a state of anxiety, shortness of breath or something similar. That's assuming that inside the elevator you can't make a call, and you don't want to rely on someone just to hear you ring a bell, and you're not going to waste valuable time in a predicament.

SOS Box is already available for Android download. The app requires registration before use. Entering personal information, such as name, email, phone and state is mandatory, while other details such as address and medical condition are optional. The user is required to enter at least one emergency contact. A free account allows you to enter one contact, and comes with 5 credits for triggering emergency calls. Every month you get one extra credit. This is so that users can try the service initially, check it occasionally and feel safe.

A premium subscription ($ 5) entitles you to a new credit each week and will allow setting up to 10 emergency contacts, who will receive a text message with your details and location in case of an emergency. A gold subscription ($ 10) guarantees you the call center service, which is available 24/7 and alerts immediately when you get stuck, in case you don't have anyone to trust, or if you want to be 200% sure that a local rescue call goes out and someone monitors the situation immediately, and until you leave the elevator safely.

There are many people around the world who are (rightfully) afraid of elevators. The SOS Box app and service offer the best possible solution, in situations where there is no choice and one must use the elevator.

Do you know someone who has a fear of elevators? Tell them about SOS Box, but don't expect that just because they now have SOS Box they'll start loving and using every elevator at every opportunity. It’s always better and safer on foot!