Number 11 Joseph Rosa In February of 2021, an elevator
mechanic suffered a fatal accident in the Bronx borough of New York City. 25-year-old Joseph Rosa
was assisting a colleague conduct modernization work on the unit, inside a Mount Eden residential
building. The elevator abruptly gave away and fell on the mechanic, trapping him beneath its weight,
at the bottom of the shaft. The cause of the sudden collapse remained to be determined
following an investigation. According to tenants of the 6-story apartment block, the
elevator had been out of service for months. First responders were able to pull Rosa out of the shaft
but the man was unresponsive. In spite of chest compressions and other resuscitation attempts,
his condition continued to deteriorate. Rosa, who’d recently gotten married, was pronounced dead
shortly after arriving at a Bronx hospital. Number 10 Suzanne Hart
In February of 2012, Suzanne Hart was crushed by an elevator at the Manhattan offices of the
advertising agency where she worked. A maintenance crew had performed repairs on the unit roughly
half an hour before Hart’s fatal accident. An investigation revealed that they’d failed to
follow a number of crucial safety protocols. They hadn’t put up signs informing that repair
was in progress and had placed the elevator back in service, without proper clearance.
While the mechanic was working on the elevator, he overrode the safety mechanism
that prevented it from moving with its doors open. The investigation found that the he’d failed to
turn the safety back on, a critical oversight that played a major role in Hart’s demise.
Moments before the 41-year-old stepped into the cabin, the elevator was called to a higher floor.
It accelerated upwards with its doors open, trapping Hart’s body. Two people inside the
cabin watched in horror as the woman was mangled by the machine. The elevator-repair company had
its license suspended and faced 23 violations, which included a penalty of at least $110,000.
Number 9 Samuel Waisbren
In August of 2019, a 30-year-old tech executive suffered a gruesome death following an elevator
accident in Manhattan, New York City. Samuel Waisbren was about to exit the elevator into the
lobby of the Manhattan Promenade, when it suddenly plummeted towards the basement. Harrowing security
camera footage showed Waisbren desperately struggling to crawl onto the floor. Unfortunately,
he was dragged down with the collapsing cabin and fatally crushed between the wall
and the elevator shaft. Another man had barely escaped the cabin ahead of him. There were five
residents in the elevator as it went down but they didn’t sustain injuries and were subsequently
rescued by firefighters. A number of residents of the 23-floor luxury apartment building
were left so traumatized by the incident that they avoided using the elevators all together.
They’d been complaining of frequent malfunctions, prior to the fatal incident.
These included wobbling, getting stuck between floors or doors that didn’t fully close. In May,
the building had been fined $1,300 after it was found that the safety feature on an elevator,
separate from the one which killed Waisbren, had been disabled or tampered with.
Number 8 Carrie O’Conner
In September of 2020, 38-year-old Carrie O’Conner was crushed by an elevator, at a Boston apartment
building that she’d recently moved into. Located on Commonwealth Avenue, the building reportedly
dated back to the 1920s. A neighbor was helping O’Conner move some boxes into her new apartment.
He took the stairs while the woman was trying to move a heavy package into the cabin. The neighbor
had reportedly told O’Conner to be careful with the “old-fashioned elevator”. It worked via a
two-door system which, in order for the cabin to start moving, required the second door to be
firmly shut. It’s suspected that the weight of the package had triggered a sensor by fault and
the elevator plummeted, dragging O’Conner with it. One neighbor reported hearing an “ungodly scream”
as the accident occurred. O’Conner sustained critical crushing injuries and was pronounced
dead at the scene. The neighbor who helped her move had witnessed the incident. He was found
in a state of distress, hyperventilating and screaming that the woman was dead.
Number 7 Sushila Vishwakarma In May of 2019, an Indian woman suffered
a horrific elevator accident, at a plastic factory in the city of Vadodara, in the state of Gujarat.
48-year-old Sushila Vishwakarma arrived for her shift at 8 am and took the elevator up to the
4th floor, where she was due to start work. As the platform started moving, however, something
went horribly wrong. The elevator didn’t have a roof, as it was used primarily for
the transportation of goods. It’s unclear if Vishwakarma’s headphones had gotten caught in the
unit’s grille door or if she’d become distracted by her phone and accidentally stuck her head out.
The woman got caught in the moving platform and was decapitated. Her body was dragged to the top
but her head was found on the ground floor. While Vishwakarma’s death was treated as accidental,
the police stated they’d examine multiple angles including a potential elevator malfunction.
Number 6 Nikolai In 2018, a Russian man was taken on a terrifying
ride by a malfunctioning Moscow elevator. The man, only identified as Nikolai, was going to his home,
on the 26th floor of the residential tower block. After he pressed the button, the elevator
surged upwards, at alarming speed, and crashed into the top of the shaft, on the 40th floor.
It then free-fell roughly 220 feet, which is close to the height of a giant sequoia, and abruptly
halted at the 20th floor, likely due to a safety brake. Nikolai sustained injuries to his back and
his leg, as he was left sprawled on the elevator floor. He’d avoided more severe injuries due to a
split-second reaction of grabbing a handrail. The elevator then accelerated upwards again
and stopped at the top. Realizing he might not get another chance to escape, he forced the doors open
and got out. He was described by paramedics as being in “deep shock” but survived his ordeal.
Number 5 Joyden Joharis Malaysian teenager Joyden Joharis died
on April the 23rd of 2020, after he got stuck between the doors of an elevator. 19-year-old
Joharis and a colleague were transferring supplies at the supermarket where they worked. Joharis,
who lived in Inanam with his fiancée, was only a month into the job. He used a dolly to transport
the goods onto the elevator platform and then to the 2nd floor. Joharis was heading back
down when the accident occurred. While the exact circumstances remain unclear, the teenager’s neck
got trapped between the doors as they slammed shut. The pressure exerted on Joharis’ neck
left him in critical condition. A team of firefighters were called to the supermarket
and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the teenager. Unfortunately, paramedics would
ultimately pronounce him dead at the scene. Number 4 Wu
In 2016, a Chinese woman, whose family name was given as Wu, died of thirst and starvation after
she became trapped in an elevator. The incident occurred in the northern city of Xian and was
attributed to a failure by a maintenance crew to check if the cabin was empty before
cutting the power supply to the elevator. The men then went on New Year’s holiday,
leaving the elevator stuck between the 10th and 11th floor. 43-year-old Wu barely kept in touch
with her family and lived alone in the building, which is why her absence went unreported. Some
neighbors told the authorities that she suffered from mental health problems, but the claims
weren’t verified. The elevator crew returned, after a month, and was shocked to discover
Wu’s lifeless body inside the elevator, with the cabin’s walls covered in scratch marks. Several
people were arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter in the incident’s aftermath.
Number 3 Maria Sanchez In December of 2020, a New York grocery store
worker passed away following an accident which involved an illegally-installed freight elevator.
39-year-old Maria Sanchez worked for the Food Emporium, in Hell’s Kitchen. She was at cellar
level, loading supplies into a small dumbwaiter elevator, when the machine malfunctioned and
lurched upwards. Sanchez’s head was caught between the wall and the moving platform, causing her
to suffer fatal crushing injuries. Her lifeless body was found by other workers in the afternoon.
Sanchez was survived by her children, aged 5 to 21, whom she worked two jobs, in 48-hour weeks,
to support. An investigation revealed that the elevator was unregistered
and didn’t have a certificate from the city to attest its safety. The Department of Buildings
issued a cease order for the unit and a violation for the building’s owner.
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Instagram and reach out to us there. Number 2 Unnamed Taiwan Man
In 2017, a man, only identified as a lecturer at Ilan University in Taiwan, got half of his
body crushed in a gruesome elevator accident. He was at the university’s sport complex when
he stepped inside the cabin. The lecturer hadn’t made it the whole way into the elevator when the
doors rapidly closed behind him, trapping his legs outside. The elevator then started to rise,
squeezing the man’s lower body. Security footage showed that only the top half of the lecturer’s
body remained inside the elevator, pinned to its floor. In spite of his horrifying predicament,
the 45-year-old had the presence of mind to call for help
on his cellphone. Firefighters tried for over an hour to rescue him but the man eventually
succumbed to his extensive injuries. Number 1 Brazilian Family
On December the 31st of 2019, four family members died in an elevator crash,
in the city of Sao Paulo. 47-year-old Jucelina Santos was going up to the 9th
floor of a residential building with her sister, Luceinida de Souza Goes, and her brother in-law,
Edilson Donizete. The couple, both in their 40s, were also joined by their 19-year-old son Eric
Miguel. They were on their way to celebrate New Year’s Eve when the elevator collapsed,
killing everyone inside. While an investigation into the accident was launched, preliminary
findings indicated that the cabin had become detached from the cable system. A service elevator
adjacent to the one that had collapsed was out of service at the time. Santos was married to a
Navy officer and the building, erected in 1998, was exclusive to military personnel. According
to a tenant, who chose to remain anonymous, the elevators would constantly malfunction. The doors
wouldn’t open, they’d stop between floors and the emergency button reportedly never worked.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather be trapped in an elevator as it’s plummeting from the third
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