Woman killed in NYC elevator accident

An advertising executive was killed in a gruesome accident Wednesday when an elevator trapped her in its doors, then jolted upward, crushing her between the elevator and the shaft wall between floors.

Suzanne Hart, 41, was heading into work around 10 a.m. at the influential ad firm Young & Rubicam at 285 Madison Ave. when she was killed instantly in the accident, authorities said.

A man and a woman already on the elevator watched in horror, helpless as Hart was crushed, and they were taken to NYU Langone Medical Center to be treated for psychological trauma. They were otherwise uninjured.

The mood in the building was shock, as it was immediately evacuated and nearby stores heard of the horrific accident firsthand.

"We heard banging, we heard screaming," said John Hanna, who owns a suit store next door to the building.

The elevator was last inspected in June and no issues were found, but 56 violations among the building's 13 elevators have been recorded since 2001, with the last coming in 2009, according to documents from the Department of Buildings. All of those violations have been rectified, and it's unclear which, if any, of the violations involved the elevator in question.

Y&R chief executive Peter Stringham said the firm was devastated by Hart's death.

"We are deeply, deeply saddened to confirm that one of our employees has died," Stringham said outside the building. "The focus at this moment is the well-being of our employee's family and our larger Y&R family."

At Hart's Brooklyn Heights home, her boyfriend, Chris Dickson, spoke to TV news crews and reporters.

"She's a beautiful person and I don't have words for this," he said. "I loved her."

With DNAinfo.com