Multiple news agencies are reporting an incident that occurred Thursday, August 16, 2012, at about 8:40 a.m. According to the New York Post, the superintendent at 602 W. 190th Street was attempting to retrieve a set of keys after a passenger dropped the keys into the elevator pit.
The victim, who was not named in the reports, was apparently in the pit when he suffered head trauma after being struck by the elevator’s descending counterweight assembly. A typical counterweight assembly weighs thousands of pounds and travels at the same speed as the elevator, hundreds of feet per minute.
OSHA requirements generally define the elevator pit as a confined space, which should only be accessed by trained personnel. Only authorized elevator personnel should access the pit due to the hazards it presents.
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