Results tagged “elevator”

The man who was with Jerry Fuchs during his final moments in an elevator in Williamsburg says he hasn't been able to sleep since the incident on early Sunday morning. The Daily News talked to Stephen Alessi, who was going to the same party, but didn't know Fuchs personally. He told the paper, "I tried to reach out for him. I was too far and it happened so fast, in a split second."

At around 1:15 this morning a report came in over the newswire that a male had fallen down an elevator shaft at Broadway and Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A reader sent in photos shortly after, and the building the incident took place in is actually at 338 Berry, between South 4th and South 5th streets — a former noodle factory converted into various multi-use spaces, including residential lofts. The victim was at a party in the building being hosted by the Uniform Project. After the fall he was in serious condition, unconscious and unresponsive. We'll update when we get more details.

In some buildings, there are shabbat (or shabbos) elevators that stop on every floor, allowing observant Jews to travel on them without worrying about breaking the Sabbath and using technology. However, a recent ruling in Israel appears to ban use of Shabbat elevators and even suggests they may be a "desecration of the Sabbath." But New York Jews don't seem that worried—one told the NY Times, "One of the wonderful things about Judaism is that there are competing opinions about everything."

The NY Times has a sad update about the family of the 5-year-old boy who fell to his death when a housing project elevator malfunctioned last year. The Times says, with the family of Jacob Neuman (pictured) is suing the Housing Authority for negligence, the HA wants to interview Jacob's brother, 9-year-old Israel who witnessed his brother fall from the 10th floor. However, his parents' lawyer has asked a judge to waive the testimony. The Neumans are worried about Israel's state of mind—"in play therapy, he drew an elevator shaft with red at the bottom," though he acts out against classmates, kids consider him a "rachmoonus" (pity) case— and a court-appointed psychologist wrote, "His defenses are so brittle that when thoughts regarding the incident reach or are introduced into his consciousness, he becomes despondent and he desperately defends against them. It is quite possible, given his present state, that serious mental decomposition may occur. That this will occur is not certain; if it does, it will be devastating indeed." The Housing Authority has a bad track record elevators; there are other lawsuits against the HA over elevator maintenance.

The MTA operates 182 passenger elevators and 176 escalators in the five boroughs, but some of them are out of service so often they might very well be cursed. The spookiest station is Herald Square, where three doomed escalators haven't moved an inch so far this year, and four others are quite often inoperative. Another notorious escalator at the Gun Hill Road station on the 2 and 5 lines in The Bronx broke down 61 times so far this year. And at one station on the Lexington Avenue line, vandals have ripped out the escalator handrail so often that workers are now trying to redesign the rail so that it can't be taken apart.

The body of a blind man was found at the bottom of a Bronx apartment building's elevator shaft last night. Sheldon Scott had left his 3rd-floor apartment after a fight with his wife, the Daily News reports, and when he didn't return for hours, his wife reported him missing. According to CityRoom, that there have been four elevator-related violations at the Riverdale building on Knolls Crescent, "all addressing the same issue: removing wood from the base of a motor room door...Investigators were trying Friday to learn what led to his death, and whether the elevators doors opened when they should not have or if something else occurred, the police said."

Only in New York, kids: The NY Times front page* features an article about a very slow elevator at a Manhattan grocery store. To be fair(way), it's the elevator that goes between just two floors at the Upper West Side grocery institution, Fairway, where shopping carts are turned into instruments of, if not death, then serious bruising amid well-priced products.

The 24-year-old trader who set a fire in 7 World Trade Center early yesterday morning apparently was trying to send a rescue signal. According to the NY Post, 24-year-old Ryan Brinkerhoff "got stuck in a freight elevator and then foolishly tried to get out by starting a signal fire."

After numerous reports of unsafe elevators in the NYC Housing Authority, the NYCHA official in charge of elevator safety is resigning this week. Many NYCHA residents, including the elderly and disabled, have to put up with non-functioning, even dangerous elevators in their complexes; over the summer, a child fell to his death when trying to escape an elevator that stopped between floors. The NYCHA promised to improve elevator repair and maintenance, but the City Council remained skeptical and recently NYCHA chairman Tino Hernandez announced his resignation. Elevator safety official Charles Miraglia will reportedly pursue work in the private sector, which is something he also did on the side (with permission) while working for the NYCHA.

A study released yesterday showed that the elevator in the Williamsburg building where 5-year-old Jacob Neuman died last month had failed 17 of its previous 21 Housing Authority inspections. That elevator was also supposed to be renovated back in 2004, but it was put off twice due to spending cutbacks. The renovation would have provided the elevator with a door restrictor that doesn't allow doors to be opened while the elevator is in between floors, a device that could have saved Jacob's life. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer plans to propose legislation requiring restrictors, saying, "It is unacceptable that the lack of a $400 device might have cost a human life." The study found that in the last five years 75% of Housing Authority elevator inspections resulted in "unsatisfactory" ratings in what Stringer called "a culture of neglect."

Today's NY Daily News paints a scary picture of the operating conditions inside some of the worst elevators within Housing Authority projects, comparing them to a ride on the House of Horrors or the Cyclone. Their survey of the ten worst elevators in city projects produced a laundry list of horrific situations such as one where the outer door simply wouldn't open and residents risked losing fingers while jimmying the door open to get out, buildings where tenants are forced to climb a 14-story urine soaked staircase and cross roofs and one where a woman with a young daughter with cerebral palsy had to call police in order to get the child and her groceries up the stairs while both elevators were out. Meanwhile prosecutors are still investigating the death of Jacob Neuman, the five-year-old who died trying to jump out of a stuck elevator in a Williamsburg Housing Authority project last month.

The police are reporting a 10 5-year-old fell to his death down an elevator shaft in a Williamsburg apartment building this morning. The boy, who was apparently with a friend, fell from the 11th floor (at 70 Clymer Street), which is about 110 feet. The boy was pronounced dead at Brooklyn Hospital; according to WCBS 2, "sources believe the boy may have been trying to escape from the elevator after it became stuck." UPDATE: Apparently the boy and his 8-year-old brother were in the elevator, on their way to school, when the elevator became stuck. There have been multiple complaints about the elevators in the buildings; City Council member David Yassky said, "I cannot express the profound sadness I feel over the tragic loss of life in Williamsburg this morning. NYCHA has assured me they are working to get to the bottom of this situation, and I urge them to investigate fully what happened. For now, my thoughts and prayers are with this boy's family and the Williamsburg community."

A 22-year-old woman was hospitalized last night with a head injury after falling six floors in an apartment building elevator, NY1 reports. After visiting her neighbor on the sixth floor of 90 Pinehurst Street in Washington Heights, Jessica Carter entered an elevator which malfunctioned and crashed to the basement. No details yet on the extent of her injuries, but she was admitted to St. Luke's Hospital around midnight with head injuries. And residents in the building are outraged because a few months ago the elevator fell from the first floor to the basement, hospitalizing one resident. The building's superintendent denies any prior problems with the elevator, but the Department of Buildings is investigating. And we'll be taking the stairs today.

The city has a new message to spread: "Take the Stairs!" As part of an effort to get people to "Burn Calories, Not Electricity" the city's health officials are putting the posters up everywhere, hoping to get you to think twice before hopping on the elevator.

Last week, the plight of production manager Nicholas White's 41-hour elevator ordeal at the McGraw-Hill building was detailed in the New Yorker. After a time-lapse video of his near-two days trapped in an elevator was put online, thousands of people have watched and shuddered at the thought of being in a similar situation, allowing media outlets to call it an "Internet sensation."

Sure, it’s not as sexy as last week’s 11 page George Clooney spread (what is?), but the article on elevators by Nick Paumgarten in the current New Yorker makes for a fresh read. It begins with the story of one Nicholas White, a former production manager at Business Week who got stuck in an elevator at Rockefeller Center while at work one Friday night in October, 1999. White’s distressing tale is teased out as a counterpoint to Paumgarten’s exhaustive look at the state of elevator art: only after 7,800-plus words does he reveal White’s fate.

Police arrested a man yesterday as a suspect in the rapes of two women in the Van Dyke Houses complex in Brooklyn. Thomas Boker was charged with rape and robbery after being taken to Kings County Hospital for a psychiatric examination. Police say that 29-year-old Boker was about to be charged when he started to act disoriented and didn't seem to know who he was. Cops linked Boker to the rapes with forensic evidence.

Cops have recently arrested a suspect in the January knife-point rape of a 34-year-old woman in an East Harlem building's elevator. The alleged perpetrator is 21-year-old Kevin Rios, who police believe followed the victim from the subway to the building on 105th St. between 1st and 2nd Aves. Ironically, the woman held the elevator for Rios, who then put a knife to her throat and sexually assaulted her.