Elevator inspections are NOT OPTIONAL !!

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Probably hadn't been inspected in a while, I've come across quite a few elevators with the inspections way past expired in hotels and what not. With the noise that comes from some of these things I'm surprised incidents like these don't happen more often.

If the case is that this incident is because a lack of inspection, this is yet another example of how Government regulations can be good. I dont trust a company to willingly pay money to guarantee safety if they dont profit from it. We need regulations for safety to ensure things like this dont ever happen.

Eww...what a horror for both the victim and the other passengers.

This is some Final Destination crap! Holy Moly!

That is second similar incident in elevators in the last couple of weeks. The last one DID have a recent inspection. That is a tragedy for both women and their families. I have always been afraid of elevators falling. But in these cases they both began to rise unexpectedly.

Horrifying incident. I've been caught in faulty elevators before. Disconcerting, to say the least. The longest, worst incident (about five minutes) also rose first, froze and would then drop a floor or two, then repeat. This happened maybe a half dozen times before the door finally opened on a floor not of our choosing. We gladly took the long stairwell to get to our destination after being released.

The victim has not been identified.

How long does it take to indentify a person?

The building...is 25 stories tall, according to local media.

Gotta love msnbc. Relying on local media for irrelevant details. What difference does it make whether it was 2 or 25 stories - it had an elevator that malfunctioned.

JeffP14 That's right. That's what we need more regulations and more laws.

JeffP-14 This is an example of how government regulations typically penalize the decent people and companies while the ones who really need supervision slip through the cracks. Domestic court doesn't catch the deadbeat dads. It beats good dads dead just to call them deadbeat. And there isn't a government agency in existence that can not, has not, and will not be corrupted by incompetence, sloth, or bribes. What we really need is a non government agency to watch and control the omniscient, bloated, corrupt government agencies.

Haven't you seen the movie?!?! It was the Devil . . . .

Um, Thinker... I don't think you're properly imagining what happened to this woman, and how that could make identification a longer process than normal.

D_Loominator: An what makes you think a non-government agency would do any better? You don't think they get corrupt in them also. Look at Wall Street and some of the big banks, no corruption there, nope? And no corruption in BP and some of the others, nope!! Geez.

Sounds like that old X-Files episode.

I don't think you're properly imagining what happened to this woman, and how that could make identification a longer process than normal.

And what exactly are you "imagining" happened to her purse or wallet?

The Vicitm has not been IDENTIFIED, probably pending NOTIFICATION of the Deceased's family. I am sure she was identified relatively quickly, but rather than being sued, they will let that be the families right of decleration.

They need to notify the next of kin before they release the victims name.

How would you like to learn of a loved ones death via the news instead of a sympathetic phone call or visit from someone?

I'm assuming that being crushed between an elevator shaft and an elevator might result in some damage or loss to ones purse or wallet.

And what exactly are you "imagining" happened to her purse or wallet?

And exactly why do you think you should know her name before they notify her next of kin? Does it impact the story at all?

@verno

An what makes you think a non-government agency would do any better? You don't think they get corrupt in them also. Look at Wall Street and some of the big banks, no corruption there, nope? And no corruption in BP and some of the others, nope!! Geez.

When non-government agencies fail to do their job properly or they get caught cheating people stop using that agency and it gets replaced by someone who will do the job right. When government agencies have the same problem we just throw more tax dollars at them and spend more money for the same inept service. Underwriters Laboratory has been certifying everything from light switches to medical equipment for over a hundred years. Can you name one single government agency with that level success and trust? Nope!!

Aside from that were you actually attempting to make the arguement that we should let government control things because they're not any worse than the private sector? If I didn't want to deal with a private company because they were corrupt I wouldn't. If I didn't want to deal with the government because it was corupt, well I'd be pretty much screwed wouldn't I.

And exactly why do you think you should know her name before they notify her next of kin? Does it impact the story at all?

Where did I say that I thought I should or that I even wanted to know her name? Just addressing a comment made above as to why someone thought she hadn't been identified.When someones name is not being released until next of kin are notified they typically mention that in the story; when they say the victim has not been identified it makes you wonder why. It really has nothing to do with her actual identity. Sorry if I have offended you; I often forget how thin-skinned people can be on NewsVine.

@D_Loominator

Two things: 1) I said regulations CAN be good. Not all are. I acknowledge this. Elevator safety is a regulation that is good. 2) How would a non-government agency regulate safety without objectivity? If they need to make a profit, they cant be objective and therefore are nonfunctional. It simply does't work on our capitalists world. Now, if we were in a Socialistic economy, then yes, a non-governmental organization could potentially be used for safety regulation. But something tells me you don't like the idea of Socialism.

To "UnitedStates1776" Bribes happen in NYC and other large cities. Inspectors walk through and accept anything an electrician says. I'm not in NYC, but lived there, and you wouldn't believe the corruption; inspections always favor the landlords and big companies. But in another city where I live now, an inspector passed some electrical work done by a large company, and there was a hanging live wire that we found by being shocked one day. Plenty of buildings have shaky, jerky elevators. I was stuck in one for an hour once when I did live in NYC. Inspections are not optional, but non-corrupt inspectors seem to be optional in fact.

Thinker ~ Typically they will say unidentified until immediate family members can be notified. I know this from personal experience.

@Jeff P-14

2) How would a non-government agency regulate safety without objectivity?

Ask Underwriters Laboratory or ASTM International how they do it. Both have been in operation successfully for over a hundred years so clearly it can and has worked in our capitalist world. The idea that only government can fill these roles is a fairly recent suggestion put forth mostly by, as you might imagine, politicians.

Surprised she wasnt cut in half.

Horrible tragedy. Stairway to Heaven comes to mind though.

This scares the crap out of me. I thought falling to your death in an elevator was just a hypothetical scenario in horror movies.

JK,

Nobody fell to their death. The person killed was crushed to death.

soundq2

My family knows who it feels to not be notified of the death of a loved one. My sister in law was murdered and my husband, her brother found out from a manager of a convenience store after she heard it on the radio news. It is very upsetting.

@Backcountry, not quite sure how that quote happened. Put it down to fat fingers and old age. I was trying to respond to "thinker" who had a problem with how long it was taking them to identify the body.

There is a difference between not being identified and not releasing the name pending notification of next of kin.

There is an elevator here that jerks and shimmys everytime you get on it. At the government building for Workers Comp, and DFS. Scarriest thing I was ever on. Still that way now, as far as I know.

Very sad, and no need for gory details, so also no need for accidents like this, even though rare and fatalities even rarer, society needs to wake up; a much more significant change has come up, elevator industry corporate culture. The last 2 years have seen an increase in various accidents & fatalities across North America and its not any better here (FL) than other states, during this same time period the elevator companies have been laying-off field workers across the nation, in record numbers, blaming recession ... odd because instead of loosing profit, or even being equal, they are making record profits (some corporations down to 65% field staff compared to 2 & half yrs ago). Why is this important, you ask? I’ll tell you, companies still have the vast majority of their contracts, of the manpower that is left individually each has more work, upwards of twice the units to care for, added to being worried about your job breeds a 'job-scared' climate, they have seen lay-off's based on the roll of the dice, good men gone with the bad. so the question is left to them "am I next"? Both merit-shop and union feeling this pinch. Creates an 'environment of haste'. There's more! 75% of the bosses for field workers have no field training, none, quite the opposite of 3yrs - 100 yrs ago. There's still more, I don't like being to wordy, so I will stop for now, but there's more! Any one reading this is welcome to contact me at .
twitter: @CharlesPollok Charles.P@antigravlogistics.com www.anti-gravlogistics.com

Use the stairs tomorrow. What are the odds that another such accident would happen today?

With my luck there will be an orphaned shark waiting for me on the stair well!

Don't avoid the stairs because of a one time freak accident, do it to save electricity and to get some exercise!

lynsey,

my guess, the elevators in that buidling are closed, for at least the remainder of the day.

Sorry, I meant "don't avoid the ELEVATOR ... "

It's impossible for this to happen if the door-closing switch has a direct faildown interlock relay with the elevator motor. Amazing. They probably opted for a cheaper electronic control to save wiring. Look at your clothes washer. Open the door and it can't spin. You'd have to physically take out a switch and short two wires to make it spin, and that's a physical job - an electronic failure could not make it spin with the door open.

Jim, there's a whole lot of corruption out there these days. This elevator, and all the elevators serviced by the same company or made by the same company, need an immediate inspection of those switches. Or else, should we think that this is domestic terrorism? I'm not quite ready for that level of paranoia, but I would believe a company too cheap to put in the correct switch.

A Sear's technician who came to repair my faulty faildown interlock relay in my washer (didn't know that's what was causing the issues) simply shorted it out as a fix and charged me for that. He told me what was going wrong, but I thought he replaced it, contrary to finding out he didn't during my next wash.

Good thing there aren't any kids at home who would be prone to sticking their hands into the washer during the spin cycle, but he didn't know that.

People cut corners.. Curious as to which company was regularly maintaining the elevator - and what other elevators they are currently maintaining. That's what really needs to be reported, not the woman's name.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if some cost-cutting landlord/owner had an electrician do his own type of "fix" in an effort to 1.) Save money. 2.) Keep the elevators working until the correct repair could be done. 3.) To keep complaints to a minimum because they'd have to walk 25 flights of stairs WITHOUT the elevator.

Watch, there will be a lot of people jumping real fast into the elevators for awhile because they think it could happen again...which it could. I think there will be a whole bunch of elevator inspectors busy for the next week or two...Landlords will be nervous that their elevator could also malfunction.

My sympathy goes to the family of Suzanne Hart and to the two people in the elevator that will have that image plastered into their memories forever. So sad...

What I don't understand is that it only takes half a second maybe to board an elevator. I mean, was this particular elevator supercharged or something? Something doesn't sound right with this story.

R.I.P.

Probably because of all the urban legends and phobias about elevators, and this plays right into it. Just shock factor, I guess.

Exactly. I knew I would find this post here. Thank You! For a moment I put myself in the shoes of two people who witnessed a woman screaming for her life while being crushed to death - HORRIFYING. How do you erase that from your memory?

People die every day in America from accidents. But when something particularly gruesome happens it gets moved right up the news chain. Same would happen with a shark attack or anything else that plays into human fears. And this would surely be a most gruesome way to go.

I know someone who does forensic cleanups. This one would surely really be a test even for someone with a lot of experience.

What DO you consider front page news? More crap about the economy, unemployment, the 2012 farce of an election, or moon mines?

This is a tragic story and I feel bad for the people involved as well as their families, but it is news.

Front page worthy or not, you can see by all of the comments that it's being read by a lot of people. That tells me this has some news value. It does for me, anyway.

It is front page news worthy because it implies a fault in the switches of elevators, which might mean thousands and thousands of them. When a car accident is caused by sudden acceleration that was not the driver's fault, that is front-page newsworthy because it means that there is a component in those cars that can cause sudden unexpected acceleration. We live in a world of machines; if they go rogue, we try to catch the problem before it kills hundreds of people. I would say that it is a public service, and I'm glad it is front-page.

Horrible. RIP.

Republicans want less regs.

Pathetic - is that Fact that the Regulations and there are many, didn't have the power to stop this accident. If It "began rising as the woman was stepping onto it" why did she continue to step in?

Regulations are not a replacement for personal responsibility and good judgment. But that's not the way Democrates see it !

My Condolences to the family.

I always like to read odd articles to see how far into the comments I can get before I run into a political attack. This article has nothing to do with politics and yet not more than 15 comments in someone is blaming this on the Republicans. Some people just cannot get their minds out of the Washington gutter.

And exactly what personal responsibility did this woman fail to exercise when getting on the elevator? How good did her judgement have to be to avoid this accident? I'll be curious to see whether this elevator had truly been inspected, or if someone just rubber-stamped it and bypassed the regulations.

@BOBWSA - are you seriously blaming this on the victim and then have the nerve to give condolences to the family? Shame on you. What the hell was she supposed to do when the elevator started to rapidly and unexpectedly rise? Shameful.

"began rising as the woman was stepping onto it" if it was rising as she started to enter, stepping out of the door may have been a better way to go. But then I am assuming that like most people she was rushing to not miss the elevator and she had time to back out. if the elevator was operating out of inspection, the owner operator should be charged with murder.

If the inspector "rubber-stamped" the elevator that to should be cause for a criminal charge of murder for the inspector.

IMO. Again I am assuming a lot of things here, as it seems everyone else is.

Who said the lack of personal responsibility was the injured? I took it took mean the possible lack of responsibility for elevator maintenance if it turns out that was the root cause.

Failure to inspect is not the cause of this accident. An inspection would not have prevented this. Regulations and signatures do not prevent accidents.

Historically personal responsibility and good judgement fall by the wayside when the Almighty Dollar is part of the equation.

Regulation helps keep people honest and provides a minimum standard to measure performance. To be fair we get a lot of junk regulations, large companies pay MILLIONS in lobbyist fees to make sure the regs that pass favor large business at the expense of small business. But eliminating regs is like tearing the seat belts out of your car, they may not always save you- but they sure do help.

And as Keith said Republicans have been ripping out regs for 30 years now. See "Banking industry" for examples. From the 1930's to the 1980's not a single crisis, then Reagan begins deregulation and Wammo! S&L crisis follows within 3 years, followed by crisis after crisis each bigger than the last. Until the latest Disaster which needed 7.7 TRILLION to salvage.

The building was not tall by NYC standards, but even in a building with less than 30 stories, elevators can rise very quickly. Human reaction time is 3/4 of a second in most people. By that time, the elevator was probably nearing the ceiling. If she had her toe in the door, it would have caught her. If she was not nimble, it would have been even harder to pull her foot back in time.
I worked out feet per second for cars to prove that most people are not attentive enough when they drive, because with 3/4 of a second reaction time, most people have enough time to stop before an accident, but they don't pay attention. That is on a road, where people expect more danger, and in America we keep some distance between ourselves and the next vehicle. But with a foot already on a suddenly moving surface, the reaction time would be the killer. Most people can't hit a fly with their hands, and they only go 4mph.

Seriously? The Regulations for Elevator Safety and inspection is alredy in the books. It is generally performed by the Fire departments from incorporated cities, and county building inspectors in un-incorporated cities. It's not a matter of needing more regulations and GOVERNMENT in your business, ITS getting the one's who are suppose to do it, the resources and manpower to achieve the safety inspections, on an annual basis. That doesn't mean there won't be failures and accidents, but hopefully it will prevent future accidents.

@liberalgunowner, the Great Depression and bank failure was in the 30's. This article is on an Elevator accidental Death, so I won't walk through the decades with you explaining the non-crisis periods.

@Liberalgunowner

But eliminating regs is like tearing the seat belts out of your car, they may not always save you- but they sure do help.

Your analogy only makes sense if the car has so many extra seat belts that it would be difficult to sit on the seat let alone buckle them all. Also I don't see many cars where the cost of installing the seat belts is potentially 20% or more of the cost of the vehicle.

And as Keith said Republicans have been ripping out regs for 30 years now.

That's not exactly what Kieth said but regardless the statement is utter BS. Bush Jr created more new regulationsthan any President since FDR. Through his first three years Bush enacted more new regulations than Obama over the same period. Makes for a good sound bite but it is nothing more than the typical rhetoric you see coming from both major political parties.

@Mr R The CRASH was in 1929 ( thus the 20's) the regulations started in 1932 (thus the 30's) so I wont walk you thru basic US history and reading comprehension.

@Backcountry164

I'd like to see a source on that Bush Jr regulations number. He certainly wasn't doing anything about Credit default swaps and mortgage backed security's (or any other banking industry problems), or the environment, or consumer product safety.

As for the seat belt analogy, I didn't make it clear. Special interest groups with deep pockets have mucked up the system, but the solution is to FIX the regulations not throw away the safety in the name of ideology. If your seatbelt is not working you fix it not remove it.

"Obama’s White House has approved fewer regulations than his predecessor George W. Bush at this same point in their tenures"-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-25/obama-wrote-5-fewer-rules-than-bush-while-costing-business.html

Special interest groups with deep pockets have mucked up the system,

It's not just special interest groups and even if it were what would prevent the same thing from continuing? It's also not just Federal regulations, there is red tape everywhere.

A German man moved to my small town and reopened the local bakery after it had been closed for several years. Took him about a month to get the place cleaned out and open for business. He's doing great but is limited by a small customer base in a small town so he decided to open a small store front in a nearby large city. City regulation states that because he is going to sell food he must have a 3 tub sink that meets all the proper specs. Never mind all of the baked goods are prepared and packed somewhere else. It cost him 600 bucks and a 6 week delay to get a sink that he has no use for installed and reinspected. He jokes about spending that much money on a sink that he's not allowed to use. Not allowed to because the regulations forbid him from using it to wash his hands and that is the only thing he'd possibly need it for. Overall he paid rent and utilities on a building for 2 1/2 months before he finally got through the red tape and opened. In total he was almost 3 grand in the hole before he could sell a single piece of kuchen.

The Federal Register is 80,000 pages long and growing. It was 78,000 pages in 2007 and 64,500 pages in 2001. Some estimates put the cost of Fed regulation at 1.7 trillion dollars a year. The SBA estimates that the cost to small businesses is 1.1 trillion/year with an average cost to employers of $7,600 per employee per year. And as I've noted this doesn't even include state and local regs.

Not only does your proverbial car cost twice as much as it should, it is so overburdened with extra seat belts that it barely functions. This mess is going to take more than a simple "fix" and let's be honest, most people aren't even willing to try a simple fix. Preferring instead to gulp down all of the rhetoric and to allow themselves to be lead around by the hand comforted by the false sense of security it provides.

So she was cut in half?

Agreed FX. Journalism is now on the same level of reality TV.

@FX,

Yeah, I thought the same thing. That article was a little confusing, for me anyway. If she was half way in the elevator of course the doors were not shut yet..

Elevators always have made me a little nervous. I have been stuck in one before. Scary!!!

I am thinking speed may have played a role. The elevator may have taken off so fast that it threw the others to the floor. I was told the elevators have sensors or breakers that would not allow them to move if the doors are open even slightly. Is this true?

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/elevator-accident-kills-1-manhattan-article-1.991368?localLinksEnabled=false

Sounds pretty horrific. More details above.

I think the number of floors in a building, the faster the elevator goes sometimes...I'm sure it caught her off guard. Also, I would guess that the other two were injured by somehow trying to help her.

The injuries to the other passengers indicate a sudden and very rapid rise. The exact injuries were not mentioned, but the term injured isn't used when a person is just shaken up. With the human reaction time being so slow (almost 3/4 of a second), the woman who was stepping onto the elevator couldn't have gotten off again, if it was moving so quickly that the others were injured. There are hand-railings in most elevators; with a little shaking, the other passengers would have just held on. I can't imagine why anybody would assume that the victim was acting irresponsibly, and not the maintenance people, the inspector, and the elevator manufacturer.

Even with all that, things can go very wrong. I uses elevators all the time, have too work in a 20 story building. When I see the elevators not leveling on the floors before I enter them. I don't uses them and take the stairs. I also alert the building management, they are very good about turning the elevators off if they seem to be having problems even slight ones. They also have the elevator service people come out and check them before ever putting the elevators back into service.

I do the same, Leather. I don't like elevators anyway having been stuck in one as a child. I take no chances when I enter one. I have been known to walk seven flights of stairs because an elevator made more noise than I thought it should. lol

According to Fire Chief, there are approximately 600,000 elevators currently in service. Every one has an abundance of moving parts and controls which need to operate together in order to function as desired. BLS states that there are an average of 30 elevator-related deaths per year. The fact that there aren't more incidences is what surprises me. I'm not trying to sound cold, because this really is tragic, but accidents happen. When so many are in use, incidents are bound to happen.

No matter how much regulation we put in place, there will always be mishaps and tragedies.

Inspection and service doesn't really eliminate the potential for malfunction, it just lowers the risk. This is the kind of thing that really makes me think about the potential for death in every day life. We live really casually around machines that could kill us, to the point that we don't really see them as dangerous anymore.

Oh gosh! How terrible!!!

Mina,

What college???

Cal State Long Beach, I am thinking.

Yeah Long Beach State

Thanks Mina..

steven,

Ya ever gone down in an elevator while going up???? LOL

The story actually said "fail"

It dragged her up two or three floors, then fell.

Yep, drunk again in Mayberry LOL

Really, you know both of the injured passengers had cell phones.

Take the partisan BS somewhere else. This is not the time, place or story for it.