I have often wondered about this myself as I live on the 23rd floor of a relatively old apartment building. If the elevator were to fall when I am inside, what exactly can I do to minimize my injury, or death for that matter. The thought of jumping up right before it reaches the bottom keeps popping in my mind, but is this realistic, if at all even possible?

A quick googling around and I found this link:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/worst_case_scenarios/1289266.html

which essentially tells you that jumping up right before the elevator crashes to the ground is not recommended, and is difficult to do as you will have to get the timing right.

Their recommendation is to lay straight, flat on the floor and cover your head and face from falling debris. Their explanation for this is that you will suffer less as the impact is spread over a larger surface area of your body. If you are standing in the elevator when it reaches the ground, the impact on your legs will surely cause some bone breakage and then some.

Optimistically speaking, this scenario will likely never happen though as elevators are always equipped with a number of safety mechanisms, such as the governor, which activates the safety mechanism upon over acceleration.

This site here explains with pretty pictures:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question730.htm

So, now that I know what really happens in an elevator, I am now well informed should the elevator in my apartment were to break down any time soon. Let’s just hope I never have to find out if any of this is true!