Probe: Safety device off in elevator death

An important elevator safety mechanism was turned off when an advertising executive was crushed to death trying to take the lift to her Manhattan office, city investigators found in a report released Monday.

A mechanic overrode the mechanism, a safety circuit that normally prevents elevators from moving with their doors open, to enable work on the midtown elevator about a half-hour before an elevator did just that and killed Suzanne Hart on Dec. 14, the city Department of Investigation and Department of Buildings found.

The mechanic insisted he'd put the safety system back online by the time Hart tried to step into the car, but investigators concluded the mechanism "was apparently bypassed at the time of the fatal incident, thereby allowing the car to move with its doors open," the investigation agency said.

The Buildings Department, meanwhile, suspended the elevator repair company owner's license. He failed to notify the agency and get an OK to put the car back in service after the repairs that day, among other missteps, officials said.

The elevator repair company, Transel Elevator Inc., called the accident a tragedy and said it would fight the investigation's findings and the move to strip co-owner John Fichera's license. Isabelle A. Kirshner, a lawyer for mechanic Michael Hill, said she was reviewing the reports but noted he had been "completely cooperative."

The Manhattan district attorney's office was reviewing the report, the product of an investigation that entailed interviewing several workers, reviewing video footage and even recreating an incident that crystallized the fears of many who rely on elevators in a city of skyscrapers.

Hart, 41, was heading to her office at the advertising agency Y&R, formerly known as Young & Rubicam, when she tried to get into one of several elevators in the lobby of 285 Madison Ave., a 27-story tower built in 1926. Two other people were already in the elevator. As they looked on in horror, it started rising with the doors still open, dragging Hart between the car and the wall. It got stuck between the first and second floors.