In a city as vertically built as New York, we all tend to take elevators for granted. We also tend to cringe whenever we read of a mishap, such as the fate that befell a repairman who plunged to his death in September.
Now another lift-related disaster has occurred. This time, the victim was a worker on her way to her daily job at an ad firm in a Midtown office building when she became pinned between floors and was killed.
The New York Post reports that the victim, 41-year-old Suzanne Hart, entered the building at 285 Madison Avenue, near 40th Street, around 10 a.m. She headed toward the open door of an elevator on the ground floor of the building. Two passengers were already inside the car.
According to witnesses, the elevator unexpectedly began its ascent to the second floor with its doors still open and Hart half-in and half-outside the car. Those on the ground floor looked on in horror as the woman became sandwiched pinned between floors.
Rescue 1 firefighters arrived at the scene within minutes and extricated the two people who were trapped inside the car. Hart was pronounced dead at the scene.
The 25-story building where the accident occurred is home to Young & Rubicam Brands, one of the world's largest consumer advertising agencies.
The cause of the failure remains under investigation, although the Post notes that city records list 56 violations for the building's 13 elevators.
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