Woman killed in New York elevator accident

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Reporting by Aman Ali, Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Greg McCune


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A woman was crushed to death on Wednesday by an elevator that began moving as she was stepping on board, authorities said.

The freak accident occurred mid-morning in a 25-story office building at 285 Madison Avenue, near Grand Central Terminal, according to the Fire Department of New York.

The woman was about halfway into the elevator when it shot upward, a fire department spokeswoman said. She was lifted up and crushed between the shaft and the elevator, she said.

The doors remained open as the elevator rose.

Two other people on board the elevator suffered minor injuries.

It was not immediately clear how far the elevator rose. The cause of the malfunction is under investigation.

The building houses a number of advertising agencies that traditionally have had offices along Madison Avenue in midtown Manhattan.

[deebakes]

:rip:

[Acid Trip]

What a terrible way to die. All you really need to read is the first two paragraphs.

Advertising executive dies in NY elevator accident

NEW YORK (AP) — An advertising executive stepping onto an elevator at her Madison Avenue office building became caught as its doors were closing and was dragged as it shot upward, crushing her to death between floors.

Two other people who got on just before looked on in horror as Suzanne Hart was killed. They were rescued from the elevator, which jammed between the first and second floors, and were taken to a hospital to be evaluated for psychological trauma. Neither appeared to be physically injured, police and fire department officials said.

Public safety and law enforcement officials said Hart was stepping onto the elevator when her foot became caught in the gap between the elevator car and the lobby floor. They say the car then rose abruptly with its doors still open, pulling her along.

The accident happened Wednesday morning in a 26-story midtown Manhattan office tower near Grand Central Terminal. The building has been the longtime home of Hart's company, the advertising agency Y&R, formerly known as Young & Rubicam.

Investigators with the city's buildings department were trying to determine what went wrong. Safety mechanisms are supposed to prevent elevators from moving while their doors are open.

A buildings department spokesman, Tony Sclafani, said the elevator was inspected in June and no safety issues were found then. The last time the elevator received a violation for a safety hazard was in 2003, and the condition was corrected, Sclafani said.

The elevator is one of 13 in the tower. It was taken out of use pending the outcome of an investigation.

Hart, 41, was a director of business development at Y&R and lived in Brooklyn. Her father told The New York Times in a phone interview from his home in Florida that she was "the most marvelous daughter imaginable."

"No father could have ever been more proud of her," he said.

A spokeswoman for Y&R, which announced just days ago that it planned to vacate the building for a new headquarters, confirmed that there had been a fatality but said she couldn't provide additional information.

The company is among a number of tenants in the building.

Officials initially reported, inaccurately, that the elevator had fallen two floors.