A 39-year-old woman died in an elevator accident while loading produce into a freight elevator in Hell’s Kitchen. According to a CBS2 news report, the elevator should not have even been in operation. The FDNY responded to a 911 call about a woman who fell into a freight elevator shaft. This happened inside a supermarket on West 43rd Street near 9th Avenue. When emergency personnel arrived, they found the grocery store worker fatally injured.
Officials with the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) said the woman was loading a small freight elevator also known as a dumbwaiter at the cellar level when the device moved upwards toward the first floor, causing head trauma. The woman succumbed to her injuries.
Illegal Elevator
The city shut down the elevator after inspectors found it was unregistered. The 
department said in a statement that this tragic incident shows how dangerous an unregistered illegally installed elevator can be. They said they have shut down the dumbwaiter and will be thoroughly investigating this incident. The DOB also said all elevator devices are required under the law to be registered and have a certificate of compliance from the city to ensure they can be safely operated.
A violation was also issued to the owner of the building. The victim’s daughter told CBS2 that the work conditions for minorities at the supermarket were “very overlooked.” The daughter also said that her mother immigrated from Mexico 15 years ago. While legislation that was recently passed requires anyone working on an elevator to be licensed and report unlicensed devices right away to the city, that law doesn’t take effect until 2022. The city has said an investigation into this incident is ongoing and that they may announce additional enforcement actions.
Elevator Safety Legislation
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Elevator Safety Act in January 2020, which requires anyone who designs, builds, inspects, maintains or repairs elevators to be licensed by the state. While similar measures have been introduced since 2012, they have not gone through because of opposition from real estate groups. Under the recent Elevator Safety Act, workers can get a license through a few different methods including taking a written test on national, state and local codes, or completing a union apprenticeship and other approved training programs.
The requirements won’t become effective until January 2022. Between 2010 and 2018, at least 22 people were killed in passenger elevators or shafts in the city, according to the Department of Buildings. Twelve of these fatalities were elevator mechanics. Other than New York, 36 states and the District of Columbia require elevator mechanics to be licensed.
Who is Liable?
Property owners and property managers have a responsibility to make sure that their elevators are well maintained and equipped with necessary safety features. The building owner and property manager or management company may be held accountable for injuries and losses caused by elevator accidents if they had failed to maintain the elevator or didn’t make timely repairs.
Some of the other parties who can be held responsible include elevator maintenance companies that fail to carry out a repair correctly or an elevator manufacturer, especially if any of the components (parts) failed due to defective design or manufacturing. In addition, private companies that inspect elevators can also be held liable, especially if it is discovered that they did not perform the inspections properly.
Injured victims of elevator accidents can file a premises liability lawsuit against at-fault property owners and/or managing agents, etc. and seek compensation for damages including, but not limited to, medical expenses, lost wages and benefits, hospitalization, permanent injuries, disabilities, past and future pain and suffering, etc. Those who have lost loved ones in elevator accidents may be able to file wrongful death lawsuits against the negligent (careless) parties seeking compensation for their losses as well.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
If you or a loved one has been injured in an elevator or escalator accident or suffered injuries as a result of negligence (carelessness) on the part of property owners and/or property managers etc., the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you.
Our law firm recovered $3,000,000 for a man who fell and suffered two broken legs when he walked into an open elevator shaft. In an interview by the Canadian television station Global News after a fatal escalator accident in Montreal, Mr. Kenneth A. Wilhelm stated that the installation of emergency stop buttons that are easily located and run the entire length of the escalator stairs may go a long way in preventing escalator accident injuries and fatalities. Also, one of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury and medical malpractice cases in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com
Source: https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/12/16/grocery-worker-killed-in-freight-elevator-accident/