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Elevator Company Connected To Freak Accident Being Sued Over Previous Incident
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 19, 2011
Modified Dec 19, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 19, 2011
Modified Dec 19, 2011
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Investigators are looking into whether human error, or perhaps a "billion-to-one power surge," caused the horrifying death of a Madison Ave ad executive last week. The company that maintained the elevator, Transel, was performing maintenance on it hours before Suzanne Hart was killed. Transel's spokesman says the company is cooperating with the investigation, but meanwhile reporters are digging into Transel's track record: It seems another woman was badly injured in one of their elevators, and she's suing.
Anne Landle, 94, was on her way to an ophthalmologist appointment in a building on Park Avenue two years ago when she was seriously injured in an elevator accident. She says the elevator doors quickly slammed shut on her as she was entering the lift, knocking her backwards into the lobby. "Then I just was laying there in my blood," Landle tells CBS2. "I had a four-inch gash in my head. My collarbone was broken. The doors threw me back into the hall again. If it were [to have] taken me down, it would happen what happened to that lady. I’d be killed instantly."
Landle has filed a lawsuit against Transel and the building, and says she still hasn't fullly recovered from her injuries. But she also believes she's lucky after hearing what happened to Hart last week. A memorial service was held for the 41-year-old Brooklyn woman yesterday, and DNAinfo reports that mourners remembered her as elegant and upbeat. “It was positive, which seemed to be what she was all about," John Gembecki, a friend of Hart's, explains.
The building where she was killed, at 285 Madison Avenue, remained closed again today as investigators try to determine the cause of the accident. Young & Rubicam, which has had offices in the building for decades, released a statement Sunday explaining that the building was still closed and that they "made the decision to keep our people in temporary locations for the rest of the week."
Tagged
elevator accident
elevator failure
suzanne hart
transel
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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