Man Dies In Downtown Elevator Accident

[Allan]

Man Dies In Downtown Elevator Accident Building

Elevator Passed Inspection In March

POSTED: 6:51 pm EST November 15, 2004

UPDATED: 7:02 pm EST November 15, 2004

A man was found dead inside an elevator at a downtown Detroit apartment building Monday morning.

The man, in his 50s, was on an elevator inside the Trolley Plaza apartment building on Washington Boulevard when a cable snapped, causing the elevator to shoot up to the 29th floor, Local 4 reported.

Someone apparently contacted the Detroit Fire Department to report the elevator was malfunctioning, but when firefighters arrived at the scene, they were told that no one was inside the elevator and that a repairman had been contacted, the station reported.

Firefighters were called back to the scene about two hours later after the man was found inside the elevator.

He suffered critical head injuries and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Residents at Trolley Plaza told Local 4 that the elevator had been acting up recently.

"They shake very bad. They shake like a roller coaster," said resident Jerrick Jefferson.

The building's manager told residents that the other elevators in the building are safe to use.

Local 4 learned that the building and the elevators passed inspection in March, but city officials plan to return for another inspection.

Copyright 2004 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[SNWEB]

Video:

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/3920925/detail.html

[Allan]

This should never have happened. Cutting costs by forgoing maintenance on the elevators? Not a good idea. There seem to be a lot of bad elevators in Detroit...Trolley Plaza, Riverfront Towers, and Book Tower seem to have chronic elevator problems. I was once talking with a guy who works on the 36th floor of Book Tower and had to take the stairs all the way down because the elevator was not working (only one of the building's elevators works normally, and that one was broken that day too).

[PghUSA]

I just found this post, OMG, when I was little I hated elevators, now the nightmares are back. This is really a bad way to die.

[urban addict 20324]

I prefer to run up 200 flights of stairs than take a shoddy elevator ride.

[Jonzo]

This is terrible. Why would you ever cut corners on elevators? And it certaintly isn't going to make people want to move into the city.