NC elevator safety upgrade in cottage rentals advancing

Elevators inside vacation cottages or similar short-term rentals in North Carolina would have to include life-saving space guards in legislation advancing in the state Senate. The measure is a response to last summer’s death of a 7-year-old child at a vacation home on the northern Outer Banks. Authorities say the Ohio boy became trapped between the elevator car and the elevator shaft. The bill that cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday would require such elevators to meet safety standards designed to prevent a small child from becoming caught in the gap. The bill also directs the state building code to require such standards in new construction.