Elevators are becoming more common in schools across New York and the country, but what happens when students are injured by their school’s elevator? Albany students should not have to worry about their safety and whether they are at risk of encountering unsafe property on school grounds. If a student is injured because of unsafe conditions, however, students and parents should be able to hold the school responsible for whatever medical costs they incur in recovering from their injuries.
After a frightening accident at her school, a middle school student is still being treated at a local hospital after an elevator fell on her and her friends. The 12-year-old and her two friends had decided to take the school’s elevator from the first floor. When they walked in, however, they realized they weren’t in the elevator, but the elevator shaft, but by then the door had already closed and locked them in.
Soon, the elevator dropped from three floors up to right above them. When emergency medical personnel arrived 40 minutes later to get the girls out, they were squeezed into a space less than one foot high and fighting to breathe. The 500-pound ladder had trapped the girls in the shaft room, but luckily one of them was able to access her cellphone and call for help.
While school officials claim that the door to the elevator is always locked, it seems that the girls were easily able to access the elevator. The city’s elevator inspector has not yet investigated the accident, but it is clear the girls should not have been involved in such a horrific accident. Luckily the girls were able to escape alive, but at least one of them remains hospitalized and all three were taken from the school on stretchers.
Source: ABC News, “Girls Trapped Under Elevator: ‘I Was Like, We’re Going to Die’,” Christina Ng, Nov. 17, 2011
