Man, 30, crushed to death when elevator suddenly malfunctions as he's about to exit in luxury Manhattan building
NEW YORK: A man was crushed to death while exiting his apartment elevator in Manhattan on Thursday morning, August 22. Wisconsin native Samuel Waisbren, a tech sales executive, was walking into the lobby of the luxury Manhattan Promenade when the elevator suddenly dropped and plunged into the building's basement.
The 30-yar-old man effectively got crushed between the wall of the shaft and the lift as the top of the elevator crashed down onto him, the Daily Mail reported.
According to the report, one man had already walked into the lobby ahead of Waisbren and five others were still inside the elevator when it fell. Fortunately, none of them were injured.
Waisbren, originally hailing from Milwaukee, was living in New York City for six years.
It is yet to be established how long he had been staying at the luxurious Manhattan Promenade, where one-bedroom apartments lease for at least $3,600 a month.
Speaking to The New York Daily News, Charles Waisbren, Samuel's devastated father, said his son had previously complained about problems with the elevator in the building.
In May, inspectors slapped a $1,300 fine on Manhattan Promenade after it was found that a "safety feature on one of the elevators was either tampered with or disabled."
Furthermore, the apartment complex has already had "17 past building violations, none of them for elevator issues."
"My feeling about New York is you pay a bazillion dollars for rent, the least they could do is provide safety," Charles stated, adding that "it would be hard to keep on living" without his son.
"Sam was an absolutely wonderful young man. Smart and loving and very, very sensitive," he said.
"He had his whole life ahead of him. It's just horrible to feel that he's not going to grow up to have children, to have his own family, progress in his career."
According to ABC7, other residents of the building had also lodged complaints about the condition of the lifts.
One resident wrote on Twitter saying there were "constant issues with the elevators."
According to FDNY Deputy Chief Anthony Arpaia, Waisbren was coming out of the elevator at the lobby when he became wedged between the elevator car and the shaft wall on the first floor.
He said Waisbren "was sort of stuck between the first floor and basement" while some of the other passengers were left in the car as it descended.
An FDNY spokesman told Daily Mail that the 30-year-old was pronounced dead the scene by the city's Medical Examiner.
A building employee reported that the horrifying accident was captured by security cameras in the lobby.
Speaking to The New York Times, the employee revealed that Waisbren tried to prevent the door from closing as the elevator went down, saying it was like "jumping out of a car if it's still moving."
A spokesman for the Department of Buildings (DOB) said they were working with law enforcement to investigate the incident.
"DOB is investigating this incident aggressively and will take all appropriate enforcement actions," a DOB spokesman told Daily Mail.
"Elevators are the safest form of travel in New York, due to the city's stringent inspection and safety requirements. We're determined to find out what went wrong at this building and seek ways to prevent incidents like this in the future."