Woman dies in freak NYC elevator accident

rockin'robin

rockin'robin

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
24,431
Reaction score
549
..NEW YORK (AP) — A woman was killed in a freak elevator mishap Wednesday at a Madison Avenue office building, police and fire officials said.

The accident happened at around 10 a.m. in a 26-story office tower near Grand Central Terminal that has been the longtime home of advertising agency Y&R, formerly known as Young & Rubicam.

Officials said the woman was stepping onto the elevator on the first floor when either her foot or leg became caught in the closing doors. The car then rose abruptly, dragging her body into the shaft and killing her, officials said.

The elevator then became stuck between the first and second floors. Two people who were on the elevator were taken to a hospital to be evaluated for psychological trauma but weren't physically injured, Fire Department officials said.

Investigators with the fire department, the police department and the city's buildings department were on the scene in midtown Manhattan. The name of the victim was not immediately released. Fire and police officials said she was 41.

A spokeswoman for Y&R, which announced just days ago that it planned to vacate the building for a new headquarters, confirmed that there had been a fatality but said she couldn't yet provide additional information.

The company is among a number of tenants in the building.

Officials initially said they thought the elevator had fallen two floors.

..Woman dies in freak NYC elevator accident - Yahoo! News
 
Oh, how awful!! I thought all modern elevators had mechanisms to prevent the car from moving if there were anything stuck in the door preventing it from closing.
 
Beach girl said:
Oh, how awful!! I thought all modern elevators had mechanisms to prevent the car from moving if there were anything stuck in the door preventing it from closing.
Click to expand...
I know! I was thinking the same thing.
 
deafskeptic said:
I know! I was thinking the same thing.
Click to expand...

Me too! It had to been an old elevator! What horrible thing to happen!


"A spokeswoman for Y&R, which announced just days ago that it planned to vacate the building for a new headquarters, confirmed that there had been a fatality but said she couldn't yet provide additional information."

This looks like a lawsuit could happen!
 
whatdidyousay! said:
Me too! It had to been an old elevator! What horrible thing to happen!


"A spokeswoman for Y&R, which announced just days ago that it planned to vacate the building for a new headquarters, confirmed that there had been a fatality but said she couldn't yet provide additional information."

This looks like a lawsuit could happen!
Click to expand...

I'll say!
 
Beach girl said:
Oh, how awful!! I thought all modern elevators had mechanisms to prevent the car from moving if there were anything stuck in the door preventing it from closing.
Click to expand...

2 possibilities - the safety mechanism failed/malfunctioned or her foot didn't trigger safety mechanism.

I should ask my friend about it cuz he's an electrical engineer for elevator company.
 
Wirelessly posted (sent from a smartphone. )

Gruel.....
 
my brother just told me latest news about this -

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/n...ive-was-undergoing-maintenance-city-says.html
Electrical maintenance work was being performed on an elevator just hours before it malfunctioned, killing an advertising executive in Midtown, a spokesman for New York City’s Buildings Department said Thursday.

“This work has now become the focus of our investigation,” the spokesman, Tony Sclafani, said.

Suzanne Hart, 41, was crushed to death on Wednesday morning after the elevator she was stepping into lurched upward, pinning her between the outside of the car and the wall of the elevator shaft.

Mr. Sclafani said the department would be conducting citywide sweeps of elevators maintained by Transel Elevator Inc., the company that serviced the elevators at 285 Madison Avenue, where the accident occurred.

The company maintains elevators at nearly a dozen prominent buildings in the city, according to Transel’s Web site, including the Graybar Building, the BMW Building and the Hippodrome Building. Additional clients listed on the Web site include Carnegie Hall and the Plaza Hotel.

The last fatal elevator accident in the city also involved Transel: Robert Melito, 44, a technician for the company, was servicing an elevator on the 10th floor of a building at 230 West 38th Street on Sept. 23 when he fell to his death.

Calls to Robert Pitney, a director at Transel, were not immediately returned on Thursday.

Mr. Sclafani said the sheer force of the accident’s impact raised structural concerns for 285 Madison Avenue, an 85-year-old building that houses the advertising firm Y&R, where Ms. Hart worked as a director of new business and content. The building, which has 13 elevators in all, was closed on Thursday and was set to be closed on Friday, too.

A barricade was set up across its front entrance on Thursday, and workers put up temporary walls in front of the elevator banks.

According to records from the Buildings Department, there are 14 open violations against the building’s elevators, two of which date to last year. Those violations were not available on Thursday, though Mr. Sclafani said none were for hazardous conditions.

Fatal elevator accidents are exceedingly rare. An estimated 900,000 elevators in the United States make 18 billion passenger trips each year, according to the database ConsumerWatch.com, while an average of 27 people are killed in elevator accidents.

Patrick Carrajat, a former elevator executive and consultant and the founder of an elevator museum in Queens, said the type of accident that killed Ms. Hart was more unusual still. But out of the few similar cases he was aware of, he said, it was usually a result of an oversight. “These cases almost always are a case of human error,” he said.

Nonetheless, Ms. Hart’s death unloosed jitters among office workers in nearby buildings, many of whom found themselves second-guessing the elevators that ferried them to work, or taking the stairs when they could. Building managers also sent out mass e-mails to offer assurances that their elevators were safe.

Alexandrea Castellini, 25, a receptionist who works on the 28th floor of the Chrysler Building, said she resolved never again to rush into an elevator because she was late for work. Suzi Brenner, 32, a landscape architect who works on the 39th floor of a building at 40th Street and Madison Avenue, found herself scurrying quickly into the elevator car. “I was thinking, ‘Just get in and get out; don’t linger in the doorway,’ ” she said.

Shanta Persaud, 31, who works in sales and marketing on the ninth floor of a building at 40th Street and Fifth Avenue, warned her coworkers and her husband to step in and out of elevators quickly, too.

Chadney Spencer, 35, who works in the same building as Ms. Persaud, said the accident made him acutely aware of how easily the daily routines of city life — crossing the street, riding the subway — could turn deadly.

“It really makes nothing safe,” he said.

Ms. Hart’s death came a day before the announcement that an elevator repairman was indicted in Brooklyn for an accident that resulted in the mutilation of a woman last December.

The International Union of Elevator Constructors has been pushing for the passage of a bill, which was introduced in the State Assembly last summer, that would require licensing for people who work on elevators. Edward Krull, an international organizer for the union, said only three cities in the state — Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse — required an elevator worker to have a license.

“Anyone with a set of tools can work on an elevator,” he said.
Click to expand...
 
my brother just told me latest news about this -

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/n...ive-was-undergoing-maintenance-city-says.html
Electrical maintenance work was being performed on an elevator just hours before it malfunctioned, killing an advertising executive in Midtown, a spokesman for New York City’s Buildings Department said Thursday.

“This work has now become the focus of our investigation,” the spokesman, Tony Sclafani, said.

Suzanne Hart, 41, was crushed to death on Wednesday morning after the elevator she was stepping into lurched upward, pinning her between the outside of the car and the wall of the elevator shaft.

Mr. Sclafani said the department would be conducting citywide sweeps of elevators maintained by Transel Elevator Inc., the company that serviced the elevators at 285 Madison Avenue, where the accident occurred.

The company maintains elevators at nearly a dozen prominent buildings in the city, according to Transel’s Web site, including the Graybar Building, the BMW Building and the Hippodrome Building. Additional clients listed on the Web site include Carnegie Hall and the Plaza Hotel.

The last fatal elevator accident in the city also involved Transel: Robert Melito, 44, a technician for the company, was servicing an elevator on the 10th floor of a building at 230 West 38th Street on Sept. 23 when he fell to his death.

Calls to Robert Pitney, a director at Transel, were not immediately returned on Thursday.

Mr. Sclafani said the sheer force of the accident’s impact raised structural concerns for 285 Madison Avenue, an 85-year-old building that houses the advertising firm Y&R, where Ms. Hart worked as a director of new business and content. The building, which has 13 elevators in all, was closed on Thursday and was set to be closed on Friday, too.

A barricade was set up across its front entrance on Thursday, and workers put up temporary walls in front of the elevator banks.

According to records from the Buildings Department, there are 14 open violations against the building’s elevators, two of which date to last year. Those violations were not available on Thursday, though Mr. Sclafani said none were for hazardous conditions.

Fatal elevator accidents are exceedingly rare. An estimated 900,000 elevators in the United States make 18 billion passenger trips each year, according to the database ConsumerWatch.com, while an average of 27 people are killed in elevator accidents.

Patrick Carrajat, a former elevator executive and consultant and the founder of an elevator museum in Queens, said the type of accident that killed Ms. Hart was more unusual still. But out of the few similar cases he was aware of, he said, it was usually a result of an oversight. “These cases almost always are a case of human error,” he said.

Nonetheless, Ms. Hart’s death unloosed jitters among office workers in nearby buildings, many of whom found themselves second-guessing the elevators that ferried them to work, or taking the stairs when they could. Building managers also sent out mass e-mails to offer assurances that their elevators were safe.

Alexandrea Castellini, 25, a receptionist who works on the 28th floor of the Chrysler Building, said she resolved never again to rush into an elevator because she was late for work. Suzi Brenner, 32, a landscape architect who works on the 39th floor of a building at 40th Street and Madison Avenue, found herself scurrying quickly into the elevator car. “I was thinking, ‘Just get in and get out; don’t linger in the doorway,’ ” she said.

Shanta Persaud, 31, who works in sales and marketing on the ninth floor of a building at 40th Street and Fifth Avenue, warned her coworkers and her husband to step in and out of elevators quickly, too.

Chadney Spencer, 35, who works in the same building as Ms. Persaud, said the accident made him acutely aware of how easily the daily routines of city life — crossing the street, riding the subway — could turn deadly.

“It really makes nothing safe,” he said.

Ms. Hart’s death came a day before the announcement that an elevator repairman was indicted in Brooklyn for an accident that resulted in the mutilation of a woman last December.

The International Union of Elevator Constructors has been pushing for the passage of a bill, which was introduced in the State Assembly last summer, that would require licensing for people who work on elevators. Edward Krull, an international organizer for the union, said only three cities in the state — Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse — required an elevator worker to have a license.

“Anyone with a set of tools can work on an elevator,” he said.
Click to expand...
 
There's a disturbing incident involving a lady and elevator in NYC...

A lady was torched to death in an elevator.

What's wrong over there?
 
2010 Elevator Accident in Brooklyn Leads to Indictment of Repairman - NYTimes.com
One year after the elevator accident that nearly claimed her life, Debra Jordan still struggles to use her left leg and dreads whenever she must change floors.

She suffered her injuries in an accident eerily similar to the one on Wednesday that killed an advertising executive in Manhattan. In each case, the elevator doors closed suddenly, trapping the woman in between, as the car shot up the elevator shaft. Were it not for the location of Ms. Jordan’s elevator — in a hospital — she might not have survived.

On Thursday, Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, announced the indictment of an elevator repairman whose work, prosecutors said, caused Ms. Jordan to be dragged seven floors, her left leg and left arm hanging outside the car. He said the repairman, Jason Jordan, 27, had taken a shortcut in fixing a critical elevator locking safety system at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, where Ms. Jordan had gone with her daughter last Dec. 25 to visit a friend. Mr. Jordan, who is not related to Ms. Jordan, compounded the error by not shutting down the elevator or calling another technician, Mr. Hynes said.

As a result, Mr. Hynes said, Ms. Jordan, 48, of Brooklyn, suffered multiple fractures in her left leg and arm, which were mutilated, and is still in a rehabilitation center.

“It’s a miracle that she’s alive,” said her lawyer, Nicholas Papain, who filed a lawsuit on her behalf. “She’s been damaged for life. On the other hand, she’s lucky to be alive, given the severity of her injuries. She almost bled to death.”

Mr. Hynes said, “Screams could be heard throughout the hospital as she passed each floor, unable to free herself from this nightmare.” He said his office contended that “what happened to Ms. Jordan was a direct result of the criminal conduct of the defendant.”

An elevator locking system, which exists on each floor of every standard elevator, according to prosecutors, restricts the elevator from moving if a person is blocking the doors. Mr. Jordan had bypassed that system by using a makeshift technique considered a last resort, prosecutors said.

But what was “truly disturbing” to Mr. Hynes was Mr. Jordan’s actions immediately after the accident.

“While hospital staff and members of the Fire Department hurried to save Ms. Jordan, the defendant, seeing what he had done, fled the hospital without saying a word or offering help,” Mr. Hynes said.

A grand jury this week returned charges against Mr. Jordan, the most serious being assault in the first degree, and reckless endangerment. At his arraignment on Thursday, prosecutors asked for bail to be set at $250,000, but Justice John P. Walsh of Brooklyn Supreme Court released him on his own recognizance. Mr. Jordan, who lives in Brooklyn, could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. His lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Lawrence Oh, a prosecutor and the bureau chief of the rackets division in the district attorney’s office, said that the news conference about the case a day after a fatal elevator accident was a coincidence. But Mr. Hynes used the opportunity to link the two and urge the passage of legislation.

“The juxtaposition between the death of that poor woman recently and what happened to Ms. Jordan has got to make everyone very concerned,” he said.

New York State does not require any certification or licensing of elevator contractors, and he said a bill currently sponsored by Keith L..T. Wright, an assemblyman from Manhattan, would change that while mandating the training of mechanics.

Mr. Oh demonstrated at the news conference the shortcut that the authorities contend Mr. Jordan used to determine the problem with the elevator locking system, instead of manually checking each floor’s lock.

The elevator Ms. Jordan used had been shut down earlier, Mr. Oh said, but the repairman allowed it to run while he was working on it.

Fire rescue personnel required power tools to extricate Ms. Jordan from the car, which stopped at the eighth floor.

She spent three months in Kings County Hospital Center before being transferred to a rehabilitation center that prosecutors declined to disclose. Mr. Papain, her lawyer, said that he hoped she would be released soon, but that she would not comment on her case.

“Every time she goes toward an elevator,” Mr. Papain said, “it brings back memories of what happened.”
Click to expand...

:ugh:
 
Man, that poor woman. I can't even begin to imagine.
 
This is why I have a huge fear for elevator since I was little girl always hear a lots of accidents and stuck in elevator stories. I just couldn't stand it to be in elevator and when have to use elevator alone my heart just drop, and my imagination ran like wild with what ifs I get stuck what if this elevator stops and light went out *Shudders*
 
Not a good week for women and elevators in NYC. :(
 
Back
Top