A Phoenix woman broke her right ankle, and possibly her left ankle as well, when the elevator she entered dropped three floors at a high speed. The fire department report noted that the victim entered the elevator on the third floor, and as soon as she activated the second floor cab call, she heard a loud noise and then the elevator dropped. The cause of the incident remained unknown. Continue reading
An elevator accident occurred at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, on Christmas Day, causing one woman’s leg to be horribly mangled. Firefighters that responded to the incident reported that the woman’s leg was trapped in the narrow gap between the elevator cab and the door sill. Firefighters cut power to the elevator and used clamps to secure the elevator car, before determining that a gas-powered cutting saw was needed to cut through the steel frame of the cab and the concrete eighth floor door sill. The woman was apparently visiting a sick relative at the hospital with her daughter, who witnessed the harrowing event. A comprehensive investigation into the circumstances leading to this incident determined that a mechanic for contractor Al-An Elevator, Jason Jordan (no relation), had used a wire jumper to bypass the elevator’s door interlock and gate switch circuits. Continue reading
Joseph Ryan, a 35 year-old man died around 11 p.m. Monday after plunging two stories down a freight elevator shaft in an apartment building located on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The man was moving into a new apartment and was apparently walking backwards and carrying a mattress at the lobby level when the incident occurred. The man fell down to the basement level and suffered injuries that he succumbed to after being transported to nearby St. Barnabas Hospital.Although the victim was not working at the time, he apparently worked for a private elevator contractor during the day. The New York City Department of Buildings investigated the accident and determined that the victim had apparently used a drop key to open the hoistway door and gain access to the elevator for at least one prior trip on the elevator. Continue reading
According to the Daily Record, “Violet Roberts suffered two broken wrists, a gash to her right leg and a spinal fracture” after “a woman apparently pressed the stop button on the moving stairs on December 10, 2009.” Interestingly, the woman that was accused of pressing the emergency stop button was charged but acquitted after Ms. Roberts failed to identify the alleged perpetrator, despite the fact that the entire incident was apparently caught on CCTV camera, and despite that the alleged perpetrator’s own mother identified her daughter in the video. According to the article, Ms. Roberts “still suffers pain and discomfort every day as a result of the incident at the city’s Waverley Station three years ago.” Continue reading
Satoshi Katayama was killed in April 2009 after he leaned backwards against an escalator handrail which then lifted him off his feet and over the the handrail, dropping him to his death into an open atrium nearly 30 feet high. Surveillance video of the incident depicts the victim briefly leaning against the handrail before being carried over the balustrade and falling to his death. Continue reading