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NEW YORK » The management company of a lower Manhattan building where a 25-year-old man was crushed in an elevator is offering condolences to the victim’s family.
Stephen Hewett-Brown was riding the elevator around midnight Friday when it malfunctioned. Witnesses said he was able to push a woman out of the lift and onto one of the building’s floors before getting pinned between the elevator car and the shaft as he tried to escape.
Buildings Department records show the accident came after a string of complaints and violation notices over the years about the Broome Street high-rise’s three elevators.
Wavecrest Management says the safety of residents is a “paramount concern.” It said Saturday that the elevators underwent a complete modernization in 2011 and were regularly inspected and serviced.
The investigation is ongoing.
Living coward if he had not come to the aid, or a dead hero for saving another person’s life?
mike, living coward? Really? When the elevator cab started up as the man was halfway out, it probably cut his body in half! What a painful way to die! The young man should’ve waited for assistance. I have never heard of people dying when they remain in a stuck elevator. It is not cowardly to remain patiently for help to arrive.
You are correct, RetiredWorking. A basic rule of elevator safety is to never attempt to force open the door of a stalled elevator and attempt to extricate yourself or others. The correct procedure is to wait for trained elevator maintenance personnel. A few years ago in New York, a building employee forced open the doors of an elevator that stalled a few feet from the floor to help two women stuck inside. He was laying on the floor outside the elevator and had his head inside when the elevator suddenly began moving downward and took off his head as it did. The worst thing that happened to the women was not being stuck in the elevator, it was having the guy’s head roll around on the elevator floor as it descended.