Safe Ride? Older Elevators Causing Injuries, Deaths
Five-year-old boy in Brooklyn who died in elevator accident is latest mishap.
Aug. 21, 2008 — -- Almost everyone has had the annoying experience of being stuck in an elevator, waiting uncomfortably for a few minutes and breathing a big sigh of relief when it finally restarts.
Imagine it happening to two police officers transporting an out-of-control violent prisoner.
Don Robertson and Eric Gelles, two officers in Johnstown, Pa., were escorting Craig Damien Rummell, whom they had arrested earlier for public drunkenness and terroristic threats, in the Public Safety Building elevator for processing two weeks ago. Suddenly, the handcuffed suspect violently attacked them, causing the elevator to malfunction and stall for up to 10 minutes, police said.
"They were stuck in there while he was kicking and bouncing, trying to get free," Capt. Andrew Frear told ABCNews.com. "The Fire Department came and opened the doors. And the elevator was fixed the next day. But it happens frequently. It's an old elevator, more than 30 to 40 years old."
The risk of older elevators failing was highlighted most dramatically this week when a 5-year-old boy fell to his death in an elevator shaft in an apartment building in Brooklyn. Jacob Neuman fell 10 stories Tuesday after the 34-year-old elevator that he and his brother were riding stalled between the 10th and 11th floors. Jacob banged on the elevator's buttons, prompting the doors to open. The boy jumped through the open door to the 10th floor but lost his footing and fell backward into the elevator shaft.
Now, the Brooklyn District Attorney has launched a criminal investigation into the incident to determine if any laws were broken regarding the operation and inspection of the elevator, according to the DA's office.
The replacement of the elevator has been postponed twice since 2004 due to federal cutbacks to the city's housing authority and is now scheduled for next year, according to authority spokesman Howard Marder.
After similar accidents from New Jersey to Ohio, questions are being raised about the safety of tens of thousands of older elevators in buildings across the country.
"There are plenty of old elevators out there that need to be modernized," says Don Gelestino, the president of Ver-Tech, an elevator service and maintenance company, which he said conducts 1,600 inspections a year. "I'm seeing more incidents lately. There are more people riding them, the elevators are getting older -- it's a recipe for problems."
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