A mechanic has been charged with criminally negligent homicide in connection with the death of 25-year-old Joseph Rosa, an apprentice who was crushed in an elevator accident The fatal incident happened in February 2021 when an elevator car plunged six stories during a maintenance operation. According to a report in The New York Times, prosecutors said the mechanic, 67-year-old Peter Milatz, did not follow proper safety procedures before or during the operation, which caused the elevator car to free-fall down its shaft and kill Rosa. Our office cannot determine fault.
Bronx district attorney Darcel D. Clark said in a statement that “jobs in this field can be extremely dangerous and workers must be protected.” On the day of Rosa’s death, the two men were upgrading the elevator at East Clarke Place in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx by replacing the steel ropes that connected the elevator car with the counterweight, prosecutors said. Rosa was working in the pit at the bottom of the elevator shaft and Milatz, a senior mechanic, was working on the sixth floor where the elevator car was located, it was said.
Lapse in Safety Protocols
A probe into this incident launched by the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) found that Milatz had failed to follow proper safety procedures during the job as well as in the weeks leading up to it. When considered together, those failures set the stage for a routine maintenance operation to turn deadly, officials said.
A DOI commissioner said the victim was crushed by the elevator because his supervisor, who was an experienced mechanic, failed to follow the most basic safety protocols and that “this senseless tragedy was entirely preventable.” Investigators said Milatz failed to comply with a standard procedure that required him to suspend chains in the elevator shaft and engage the elevator’s brake before the steel rope was cut.
Investigators said they also found that Milatz removed a major safety feature from the elevator two weeks before the operation that killed Rosa, and failed to replace it. This feature, known as a governor, triggers the brake system on an elevator car in the event of an emergency. Prosecutors said Milatz failed to replace the governor and allowed the elevator to operate without that important safety feature for two weeks prior to Rosa’s death. Again, our office cannot determine who, if anyone, was at fault.
Protecting Victims’ Rights
Injured victims of elevator or escalator 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.
Workers who have been injured in an accident can seek workers’ compensation benefits from their employer. In addition, workers and their families may be able to file a third-party lawsuit for substantial money damages against a number of parties, and thus have two sources of compensation. In cases where a worker dies from injuries suffered on the job, surviving family members may seek death benefits through workers’ compensation and/or file a wrongful death claim against a third party. Third-party claims are filed against parties other than the employer or co-employees and may include general contractors, sub-contractors, building owners, managing agents, construction companies, etc.
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. Our law firm helped a client secure $1,750,000 in a case where she suffered an ankle injury requiring surgery when the elevator she was in fell four floors due to negligence (carelessness) on the part of the elevator maintenance company. In addition, we got the workers’ compensation insurance company to pay a $150,000 lump sum for future medical benefits. 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, lead poisoning and medical malpractice cases including, brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy) and cerebral palsy 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.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/nyregion/bronx-elevator-death-charge.html