Quantcast

[UPDATE] Elevator Malfunction Kills One, Injures Two In Madison Ave Office Building

121411elevator.jpg
The FDNY responding to the elevator failure outside 285 Madison Ave (Courtesy @jwillym)

[UPDATES BELOW] One person is dead and two people injured after an elevator accident in a Madison Avenue office building around 10 a.m. this morning. The incident happened at 285 Madison near East 40th Street, in a building where advertising agency Young & Rubicam has offices, among other agencies. Three people were in the elevator when it fell two floors, but the FDNY could not immediately provide details on the extent of the injuries. (An FDNY source tells City Room the two injured people are "not badly hurt.)

Department of Building records show the building has been cited for elevator violations over the years, but nothing recent. The Times notes that after eight decades on Madison Avenue, Young & Rubicam, along with several other agencies, is planning to leave the building and move to Columbus Circle in 2013.

Update: A worker in the office tells us he received this memo shortly after the accident: Just before 10am this morning an accident on the elevators occurred. Three people remain trapped. Emergency personnel are operating on the scene. We ask everyone to remain in their current location. Do not use the elevators at this time. We will provide further updates as soon as we have them.

Update 11:15 a.m.: One Young & Rubicam employee tells us, "There is some shock in the building; I'm not sure if they are surprised though. It's an old building (Y&R has been here since the 20s)... The elevators are slow and a bit buggy sometimes, but nothing that would hint that they would fail. I noticed some bouncing, and sputtering in one of the cars, but I cannot confirm that this is the elevator that failed."

121411elevator2.jpg
(Courtesy @DSRBroadway)


Update 11:20 a.m.:
Officials tell NBC New York an unidentified woman was "crushed" between the elevator and the ceiling. She was reportedly "halfway onto the elevator when it took off without its doors closing."

Update 12:03 p.m.: The FDNY has not yet identified the woman who died, but officials say she was 41-years-old.

Update 12:42 p.m.: An FDNY official tells DNAinfo the woman was crushed when the elevator rapidly shot upward and pinned her between the first and second floors. A different elevator "dropped two stories, causing the one she was getting into to shoot up. Firefighters were unable to immediately get to her because she was stuck between the first and second floors." ABC 7 reports that a 36-year-old woman and a man were treated for trauma after witnessing the incident.

CityRoom reports that the woman has been identified as Suzanne Hart, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. According to LinkedIn, she was director of new business content and experience at Y&R.

Liz Dennebaum, who works for direct marketing agency Wunderman (which is owned by Y&R), tells us, "One of my coworkers was trying to get into building, and she says there was a lot debris and broken tiles on the ground floor." Dennebaum spoke to us on her way home, having decided to work remotely for the rest of today. "I'm really shaken up," says Dennebaum. "It's a shock to hear that this could happen. I'm a native New Yorker, and I've never heard of an elevator falling like this in 30 years. I feel horrible for the woman who died, and her family."

John Hanna, who owns a suit store next door to the building, tells DNAinfo he heard blood curdling yells after the accident.

Unfortunately, it's not entirely unheard of for elevators to fall in NYC, but fatalities like this are infrequent.

Update 12:54 p.m.: The Daily News elaborates that she was pinned between the elevator and shaft wall as it dragged her up two floors, and "the two other people inside the elevator looked on in horror. Then suddenly, the elevator fell back down to the ground floor — taking the doomed woman and two other people with it, the sources said."

Update 4 p.m.: An FDNY official tells City Room, "Her foot or her leg are heading into the elevator while the door is open. Her one foot is in the car; but then, the doors close on her leg and the elevator shoots upward. And she is just kind of yanked up with it. Then, the elevator car becomes pinned between the first and second floor. It seems like her body is what stops the elevator’s movement."

City Room also called Hart's father, who said, weeping, "She was the most marvelous daughter imaginable. No father could have ever been more proud of her."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Comments [rss]

  • I would try to convince him that differences could be resolved through peaceful talks and that nothing can be achieved by resorting to violence against innocent people.

  • Midnight Fapper

    the elevators were thirsty for blood, can you blame 'em?

  • Of all the ways to die...this is a horrible way to go out. This kind of malfunction, I have never heard of before.

    RIP to Ms. Hart.

  • ugh, what a horrifying way to die and thing to witness.  condolences to the family and best wishes for those two poor souls who witnessed it.  and to the firefighters who had to retrieve the woman's body. 

  • Poor girl - I hope it didn't have anything to do with those crazy stilettos you crazy chicks have been sportin' lately......

  • ronshapley

     City room called the victims father ???    Does the media have no respect for anyone ???

  • SpideySense

    This is similar to another horrible incident about 20 years ago where the elevator dropped with the doors open just as a woman was getting on, crushing her head and decapitating her. She never knew what hit her. Here one second, gone the next.

  • we were talking about that at the office -- you're just following your daily routine on the way to the office ....  and in seconds, people's lives are changed forever.

  • stewart_nyc

    This is such a tragic accident. My condolences to Suzanne's family. As said above, hopefully she didn't even realize what was happening. I will remember this story for a long time.

  • landwlkr

    So sad. I feel awful for her loved ones. What a terrible thing.

  • Naveen Paddu

    So is this how elevators are supposed to work, meaning they were tied together somehow?  The article says one fell down 2 floors and the other went up.

  • unretrofiedforu

    It was probably one of the older ones that counterbalance with other cars. 

  • It was an older building (built in 1926), so chances are that it had a roped elevator system (as opposed to a hydraulic one).  Those systems typically have the elevators tied to a counter weight/electric motor set up.  It could have been something in that area that failed in one that impacted the other.  Elevators have safeguard systems that typically prevent this kind of thing from happening, but its obvious that one (or many) of these failed and resulted in tragedy :(

    This page did a pretty good job explaining how a roped elevator works when i looked it up.

    http://science.howstuffworks.c...

  • robingee

    So they don't retrofit all elevators with doors that push back open when it closes on something like a leg or hand? I wonder.

  • sk83r

     yeah they do, it wont move if the inner doors and outdoors dont both come fully together or some cuts the laser beam or hits the bumpers on the doors. Sounds like every safety switch (and thats more than 1) failed, or all but 1 was removed for $ reasons and the one left broke.

  • damn this is like Faces of Death material

  • whodiditandran

    I was on an elevator once when a woman jumped on at the last second just as the doors were closing...and caught her scarf in them. As the elevator went up, she was pulled backwards and down to the floor before her scarf (fortunately) gave way with a rip. One of the scariest things I've ever witnessed and taught me a valuable lesson...you're never in that much of a rush as to not wait for the next elevator.

  • Peanut_Butter

    I think dangling clothing accessory there is to blame.  I'm always an advocate against wearing excessively bulky or dangling clothing, like men who wear long overcoats.  Often, it is not necessary.  In this busy, fast-paced crazy city we live in, you really have to dress for guerrilla warfare.

  • angry_pickle

    Same reason why I discourage the wearing of earings and nose rings and those sort of things.  They are highly vulnerable in a fight.

  • Peanut_Butter

    Or sandals or flip-flops (for a guy).

blog comments powered by Disqus

send a tip

tips@gothamist.com