Submission + - Elevator Was Serviced Just Before Accident (nytimes.com)
Joe_Dragon writes: "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.
Related
City Room: Did You Think Twice About the Elevator? (December 15, 2011)
Elevator Accident Kills Woman in Midtown Building (December 15, 2011)
City Room: Woman Fatally Crushed in Midtown Elevator Accident (December 14, 2011)
Metro Twitter Logo.
Follow @NYTMetro
Connect with @NYTMetro on Twitter for New York breaking news and headlines.
“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.
Nate Schweber contributed reporting."
“Anyone with a set of tools can work on an elevator,”
That is way we need more unions. As they can tell there boss that they need X time to do a safe job and not be rushed to get to the next job and they can't just pull some out of college with no training and put them on the job with out a real apprenticeships.
Related
City Room: Did You Think Twice About the Elevator? (December 15, 2011)
Elevator Accident Kills Woman in Midtown Building (December 15, 2011)
City Room: Woman Fatally Crushed in Midtown Elevator Accident (December 14, 2011)
Metro Twitter Logo.
Follow @NYTMetro
Connect with @NYTMetro on Twitter for New York breaking news and headlines.
“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.
Nate Schweber contributed reporting."
“Anyone with a set of tools can work on an elevator,”
That is way we need more unions. As they can tell there boss that they need X time to do a safe job and not be rushed to get to the next job and they can't just pull some out of college with no training and put them on the job with out a real apprenticeships.
