Elevator Accidents: Avoid the Risks Whenever Possible

NEW YORK, NY, July 26, 2012 (Press-News.org) Unless you're a highly athletic person in great shape and in your twenties or thirties, taking the stairs to the floor where you work in a tall skyscraper is simply out of the question. Yet during recent years, two New York City elevator accidents have caused many workers to seriously reconsider how they get to and from their offices each day.

Two Exceptionally Tragic New York City Elevator Accidents

On Christmas day 2010, a woman named Deborah Jordan and her daughter went to SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn to visit a friend. As the woman stepped into the elevator, it suddenly "lurched up. Her leg became trapped outside, in the space between the elevator car and the shaft - it scraped against the floors as the elevator rose." Fox news reported at the time that "her daughter [was] seen on surveillance video reacting in horror as she is dragged up [eight floors]."

Fortunately, Ms. Jordan managed to live through the accident, though she had to spend three months in a hospital before being sent for a lengthy stay at a rehabilitation center.

Even more horrific was the elevator accident that took the life of 41-year-old Suzanne Hart on December 14, 2011. Ms. Hart was planning to ride the elevator up to her job at a highly respected advertising firm in one of New York City's older Midtown office buildings. It was all a part of her daily routine for the past four years.

Just after placing one foot inside the elevator, it suddenly jerked upwards with the door still open. Ms. Hart was dragged upwards between the first and second floors, while still pinned between the elevator and the wall. Two people already in the elevator were forced to view the horrible death of Ms. Hart while still trapped in the elevator for another hour. Although she had first stepped into the elevator around 10 a.m. in the morning and was declared dead at the scene of the accident, her body could not be safely removed until about 7 p.m. that evening.

According to an article in the New York Times, "There are about 60,000 elevators in New York City, which were involved in 53 accidents [in 2010]." While only three of those accidents were fatal, that's enough frightening activity to make many New Yorkers slip on some tennis shoes and brave the stairs when trying to reach offices on the lower levels of some office buildings.

Safety Tips for Riding New York City Elevators

- Avoid wearing sandals or other unstable footwear. When riding elevators, it's just too easy to get your foot caught in the doorway if the heel of a tall or thick boot causes you to trip or fall or a sandal comes loose at the wrong moment;

- Always wait for the elevator to land even with your floor before boarding. If the elevator car is hanging too high or too low, it's very likely that a sudden surge upwards or downwards may be about to happen;

- Never attempt to stop a closing door by using your foot, umbrella or attache case. Any time you try to alter the automatic functioning of an elevator, you may accidentally counter-program it to skip a floor or otherwise malfunction;

- When boarding, ask someone to press and "hold down" the open door button. This can buy you some added "safe" time to step in and move away from the doorway;

- Allow those in the front of an elevator to exit first. If everyone begins fighting to get off the elevator first, people can trip over each other or even jostle the elevator so much that it suddenly lurches upwards or downwards;

- Don't demand that you be allowed to enter an obviously full car. Elevators have capacity limits - don't push your luck or you could be endangering everyone on board, including yourself;

- If there's a handrail, use it. Elevator accidents don't have to be fatal. Should the car you're riding in move in a sudden jerking motion, those holding onto a handrail have the best chance of avoiding injuries once the elevator lands safely;

- Review all of the added suggestions provided by the National Elevator Industry, Inc. This website addresses nearly every serious catastrophe that might start unfolding on any elevator you may ride in the future.

New York Elevator Accident Lawyers
Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff, L.L.P.
122 E. 42nd Street, Suite 3800
New York, NY 10168
Telephone: 212-697-9280
www.nycaccident.com