Not for Pushing: Another Fatal Elevator Incident

Two men were found dead in an elevator shaft at a LeFrak City apartment building in Queens yesterday. Newsday reports that the men had fallen from the 11th floor, when they pushed the closed elevator doors. Their force seem to have caused the door to open. The two men were brothers, 26 year old Julien Jones and 24 year old Leslie Jones, who were heard "laughing, playfully wrestling, and slamming against the walls" yesterday morning. Their bodies were not found until 12 hours later and a repairman was called to fix the elevator

This comes after a similar Saturday incident where a man was pushed into closed elevator doors at Chelsea club Bed and then fell four stories to his death when the elevator's door came off its bottom track. The NY Times spoke to an elevator consultant who "said that some accidents like the ones over the weekend could be prevented with a cheap device called a Z-bracket that reinforces elevator doors."

The operator of LeFrak City says that its elevators had Z-brackets and other safety measures; Charles Mehlman told the Post, "Two individuals bashing into the doors - there's no way the door could withstand that kind of force. Somebody hit the door very hard." Still, we bet buildings will be checking their elevators twice.