Worker Hurt When Elevator Falls On Him In Lower Manhattan
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A repairman was hurt when an elevator fell on him Wednesday in Lower Manhattan.
"I was up here by the elevator. He was trying to release a safety mechanism," another worker told WCBS 880's Rich Lamb. "Once he got it free, the chain snapped and unfortunately fell straight down on him."
Rescuers hooked a winch to an FDNY tower ladder to pull the elevator off the man. They got him out after about 10 minutes.
He was rushed from the scene on Great Jones Street to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue in critical condition.
It was one of those basement-to-sidewalk freight elevators that pushes up through double steel doors at street level, Lamb reported.
The incident Wednesday came the same day that four Con Edison workers had to be rescued after the elevator they were on broke down 200 feet below the surface at the Hudson Avenue plant in the Fulton Ferry neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The incidents are renewing a push by the International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 1 for the passage of the Elevator Safety Act – state legislation that would transform elevator safety in New York setting minimum education and training standards for elevator mechanics.
The legislation would also create an elevator contractor's license and an elevator safety and standards board.