New York Accidents

Accidents are happening all over New York City pubic housing in their elevators. Since 2001, more than 300 residents and visitors to public housing properties have been injured in elevator accidents, with roughly 200 of those incidents involving the inner or outer doors of the elevator. The New York Times reports:

Dozens of those people received minor bumps and bruises, if any, and did not bother seeking medical attention. But more than 170 were treated at hospitals, by private physicians or by paramedics and firefighters for injuries to their hands, arms, feet, backs, heads, legs or knees, according to the agency and to the records. The records were released by the agency, the New York City Housing Authority, in response to a Freedom of Information Law request by The Times.

The records, though terse in their description of each accident, provide the first comprehensive picture of elevator accidents in public housing buildings, showing not just the frequency of injuries but also their financial costs.

Officials at Lefrak Management, the firm charged with overseeing maintenance of elevators at the Lefrak City apartment complex, said last week that the recent deaths of two young men were a “tragic accident” and not the result of negligence on the part of the management company.

Half-brothers Julian Jones, 25, and Leslie Jones, 23, plummeted 11 stories to their deaths on February 3 after they got into a violent argument outside an elevator in a building at 96-04 57th Ave., authorities said. The pair was caught on a surveillance camera at about 5 a.m., “shouting and bouncing into the door of the elevator during the argument”, police sources said. Officials believe the half-brothers bumped into the elevator door, knocking it open.

The two men plunged to their deaths down the elevator shaft, police said. Their bodies were discovered 12 hours later, when an anonymous caller notified building maintenance that there was a body in the shaft and residents called to complain about a door that had dislodged from its track.

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