Officials had gotten reports that an elevator in a Bronx public housing building was dangerous an hour and a half before an 84-year-old man fell and was killed by the malfunctioning car, but didn't take it out of service, a city investigation has revealed
A report by the city's Department of Investigation found that the 2015 death of 84-year old Olegario Pabon of the Bronx might have been preventable if New York City Housing Authority had better communicated the status of elevators at the Boston Road Plaza before he died.
"The more than 400,000 New Yorkers living in NYCHA’s public housing developments should expect that elevators operate safely with all proper protocols in place to protect from dangerous conditions," said DOI Commissioner Mark G. Peters. "DOI’s investigation demonstrates just how quickly events can turn tragic when there are significant breakdowns in communication, lax enforcement and improper compliance with the law."
DOI said that a resident called NYCHA officials to report the condition of the elevator at Boston Road Plaza about 90 minutes before Pabon stepped into the elevator on Christmas Eve. The elevator car drifted upward and caught Pabon's leg and hand, and the man fell out of the raised lift. He died from his injuries three days later.
Video obtained by NBC 4 New York about an hour before Pabon's death also showed the elevator drifting up without the doors closing.
Senior leaders at NYCHA didn't learn about Pabon's accident until four days later, investigators revealed.
DOI said that the accident that killed Pabon and a second nonfatal incident at the Morris Houses where a man's foot was caught in an elevator for an hour, could have been prevented if faulty fail-safe devices known as brake monitors had been operational or if NYCHA had taken the malfunctioning elevators out of service.
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The probe also revealed that NYCHA wasn't in compliance with city codes in relation with tags that documented annual inspections and maintenance to elevator brake systems. NYCHA staffers later told DOI that they had "missed the boat" on the regulations.
“DOI’s investigation identified numerous weaknesses in NYCHA’s systems for promptly communicating about and responding to elevator problems in its more than 3,000 elevators in NYCHA public housing developments citywide,” said Peters.
DOI made 14 recommendations to make elevators in city public housing complexes safer. The recommendations include increased elevator inspections and better staff training.
NYCHA says that it has already instituted many of DOI's recommendations.
"Since the tragic death of Olegario Pabon, NYCHA and DOB have taken unprecedented measures to prevent malfunctions of this kind from occurring in the future, including inspecting all single- and dual-plunger brake systems throughout the Authority, and implementing new training and policies to ensure we never see a tragedy like this again," the authority said in a statement.
Still, some tenants at NYCHA buildings say they're still leery of the elevators.
"The only thing I'm safe with is God," said Sylvia Grissom. "He's getting me back and forth. The elevator? No."
