“Two very young victims aged 11 and 12. Young girls, followed and assaulted in a lift on their way home, managed to escape by a whisker before being abused. But the cases could be many more, given the rumours gathered by the carabinieri in recent weeks’. So we read in the most important newspapers, in the pages dedicated to the chronicle of Milan.

A new nightmare: what already happens in horizontal transport, such as metro and buses, now also happens in vertical transport, i.e. in lifts. The risks are increasing, especially for girls and women. And those who have been in the lift business for more than 50 years cannot remain silent. There is a very serious safety alarm to be dealt with.

This is why Elevatori Magazine, a magazine on the market since 1972 dedicated to vertical transport, founded and directed by engineer Giuseppe Volpe, a great lift expert, who has always been socially aware, raises the alarm and, with the authoritative voice of its Director, gives an idea to control bodies and operators in the sector, to support women. “We have to take note of this new reality and study countermeasures,” comments Giuseppe Volpe. “For example, equipping all lift cabins with a small camera, connected with the service centre and with rescue bodies. It would be enough to press a button, such as STOP, to activate the connections.”

“At the present time, in fact,” explains the Editor-in-Chief of Elevatori Magazine, “pressing the STOP button causes the lift car to stop on the way, even between floors, without anyone being able to intervene (apart from the ‘alarm’ button, which is present in all cabs, but which is often not heard or taken into consideration). Indeed, paradoxically, in some cases pressing the STOP button can be dangerous because it increases the time you remain ‘stuck’ in the cabin until outside help arrives. This is just an initial idea that came to mind when reading these terrible incidents. There are many others. It is up to us, as a technical-scientific journal, to sound the alarm so that no one looks the other way and so that the lift becomes more than ever an ally of women (and not only).”