Boy Breaks Leg in Bronx Elevator Nightmare

Paramedics, the FDNY, and panicked neighbors worked together to save a 7-year-old boy from falling to his death in a Bronx building's elevator shaft yesterday. Milton Apolinaris and his younger brother were on their way to play with a friend when the elevator at 710 Hunts Point Avenue stalled between the third and fourth floors. According to the Post, the boy managed to pry the doors up but when he tried to climb out he got his foot stuck between the floor and the elevator car. One resident tells the Daily News, "He was outside the elevator, but upside down in the shaft. His feet were on the fourth floor and his body was on the third."

Channel 7 reports that neighbors helped to prevent the elevator from moving until firefighters could get to the scene, at which point they formed a human chain to rescue the boy. Lt. Raymond Arcos/Engine 94 says, "I told my firemen to grab our belts, so that we wouldn't fall into the shaft—and that none of the pedestrians tried to push us in while trying to help." Paramedic Moses Nelson explains to the Post that his main objective was to calm the terrified boy, "I just kept talking to him because the more scared he got, the more he moved."

Apolinaris was rushed to the hospital with a broken leg. The News notes that the six-story building has been cited nine times since 1991 for failing to maintain the elevator, and the chronically malfunctioning elevators in some NYC buildings have sparked considerable protest because of incidents like this. And here's that classic time-elapse video of one man's crazy 41 hour stay in an elevator.

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By John Del Signore in News on May 12, 2009 9:59 AM

Comments [rss]

Gwinny

I'm glad the kid's okay, but what he did was frankly pretty stupid.

JRod5417

Yeah, because all 6 year olds know exactly what to do in that situation, right?

Gwinny

You mean 7... and actually, maybe he shouldn't have been in the elevator without an adult.

They say 7 is "the age of reason" -- but apparently not. I know I sound harsh, but I NEVER would've tried that at that age.

Peter

A few years ago there was an elevator accident at a hospital(!) in Houston that must've set an all-time record. A man was beheaded when the elevator car suddenly dropped about ten feet as the door was open. That's bad enough, but several other riders were trapped in the car with the severed noggin for over a half-hour until the fire department could get them out (the rest of the stiff was outside the elevator). How's that to mess up your day?

jaycjay

There were actually at least two similar incidents, one local.

Grisly details warning: don't read if you're eating lunch.

In Texas in 2003, it was a doctor who was partially decapitated -- his head was basically crushed and the top part of it (from the jaw up) remained in the elevator with one passenger, a physician's assistant. She'd gotten in first and pushed the button for her floor, he rushed in while the doors were closing and they closed tightly on him, pinning his shoulders while the elevator went up.

http://www.houstonpress.com/2003-10-09/news/catching-elevators/

And in 1995 in the Bronx, a guy was helping passengers out of a stuck elevator when it moved upwards and decapitated him. The elevator went up with it and the other passengers while his body fell down the shaft.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/07/nyregion/elevator-kills-city-worker-in-the-bronx.html

whitecastlerock

A six story building and these kids are taking the elevator?

chuzzlewit

i bet little man never gets in an elevator again.

Peter

The really bad elevators mostly seem to be in housing projects, but as far as I can tell from the news stories, this was a privately owned building.

r1b2

Um, WHY are there......

r1b2

Um, WHY are there......

r1b2

Maybe I'm really naive, but who are there SOOOOO many bad elevators in these buildings?

CR

1. low funding, 2. high usage, 3. work is contracted by the city, 4. elevator repairs tends to take a long time, 5. people f*ck around with the elevator and they break.