Abstract: A safety arrester for mine shaft passenger cages is provided wherein a pair of arresting cams are arranged to straddle the sides of a tubing guide positioned on each side of the mine shaft which tubing guide is used for stabilizing the movement of the cage. If the lifting cable should fail, a spring biased actuation mechanism will move causing the arresting cams to move into contact with the guide. As the cage is falling, the arresting cams act on the surfaces of the tubing guides to deform these surfaces. Also, the surface of the arresting cam comprises a deformable material so that, as the cage is falling, more and more of the surface of the arresting cam comes into contact with the surface of the tubing guide. Thus, the falling cage is gradually brought to a safe stop.