Father of Madison Avenue ad executive killed in freak elevator accident two years ago sues repair companySuzanne Hart, 41, was killed December 14, 2011 after elevator shot up as she was enteringHer father, Alex Hart, is now filing a lawsuit against Transel Elevator and Electric for the negligence of its employees By Updated: 07:02 GMT, 30 January 2013
The father of a Madison Avenue ad executive crushed to death in a horrific elevator accident two years ago is suing the company in charge of the lifts.Alex Hart, whose daughter Suzanne Hart, 41, was killed when an elevator in the Midtown office building rose rapidly as she was stepping into it, TRAVESTIS LISBOA accuses the elevator firm of being reckless and ignoring safety rules.The Hart family claims that Transel Elevator and Electric and the negligence of its employees caused Ms Hart’s death. Suing: The father of Suzanne Hart, pictured, is suing the elevator repair company that was in charge of fixing the elevators in her Madison Avenue building Scene: The lobby of 285 Madison Avenue shortly after Ms Hart was killed in December 2011 The lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Tuesday, cites Transel and its repair crew for numerous errors, including a failing to post repair signs around the elevator and failing to put caution tape inside the elevators.According to , the lawsuit also cites the repair crew for operating the elevator at 285 Madison Avenue without a certificate of compliance and not scheduling the city-run Department of Buildings to inspect the lift before it was again operational.Mr Hart’s lawsuit does not state a lump sum of damages required. RELATED ARTICLES
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Ms Hart, who was an executive for advertising firm Y&R, formerly Young & Rubicam, had entered the lobby of the building on December 14 and had stepped into the elevator when it shot up to another floor.Two other people were in the elevator at the time, and witnessed her death.News of Ms Hart’s gruesome end shocked a city reliant on elevators to shoot them from floor to floor in a city dependent on them. A probe by the Department of Buildings in February 2012 revealed that Transel mechanic Michael Hill had disabled a safety switch that would stop an elevator from moving when the doors remained open.The company’s co-owner, John Fichera, had his license suspended for failing to have the city sign off on the lift prior to use again. Family: Ms Hart’s father, Alex Hart, far left, pictured with Ms Hart’s brother, Mike Hart, and her boyfriend, Chris Dickson Responding: Emergency personnel gather outside the building where the 41-year-old was killed on the scene, treating only others for traumaTwo-way radios can jam the frequency of an elevator, and there was a history of problematic test results for this particular elevator in the past. ELEVATOR INSPECTIONS ON THE RISE SINCE FREAK ACCIDENT Since Ms Hart’s death in 2011, elevator inspections have been more frequent, and city inspectors have doled out harsher fines to code violators, the New York Post said. In an report, the Post says that inspectors are giving high fines to violators. In addition, there are more inspectors looking at elevators. Mr Hart said it’s welcomed news. ‘I would hate to think that any other family would have to go through what we did,’ he said. Lerch Bates, the safety consultant hired to evaluate the incident, did a test of the faulty elevator car on January 9th- almost a month after the fact- and when a two-way radio was switched on near the elevator’s control box, it jolted downwards. Given the similar nature of the elevator’s reaction, Mr Hill feels that is a possibility. Lerch Bates also notes that at the time of the accident, the panic motion was not intact on the computer controlling the faulty elevator.Mr Hill said that he is haunted by the death of Ms Hart daily, as he saw her dead body when he responded to the scene. The 25-story building is owned by WPP, the world’s biggest advertising group.The tragic death led Department of Buildings inspectors to examine 650 lifts in the city in the largest elevator probe in history.Ms Hart, originally from California, had worked at Y&R ad agency – which represents Campbell’s Soup, Land Rover and Xerox – since June 2007.She was in charge of helping to drum up new business and prepare pitches for new clients and was described as a ‘crazy hard worker’ by colleagues.’Most people who worked with her would tell you that she was one of the nicest people around,’ one colleague told the New York Daily News.
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