Maintenance worker killed in hospital elevator shaft

TALLAHASSEE — A contract worker conducting maintenance in an elevator shaft at a Florida hospital was killed Friday morning.

After an hours-long search and rescue operation, that included pulling three people from an elevator stuck between the ground and first floor of Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare's Professional Office Building, Tallahassee Fire officials found the man dead.

Tallahassee Fire Department Capt. Mike Bellamy said the rescue operation began after the three people were removed from the elevator, and the construction worker was unaccounted for.

Hospital officials were unsure of the details that led to the man’s death, primarily why he was working in the shaft with an operational elevator. They said he was responding to a maintenance request placed Thursday night.

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Bill Giudice, the hospital's chief financial officer, said the man was working alone. He expressed his condolences as emergency crews wrapped up the rescue mission behind him.

“We are heartbroken and saddened that there was a death today,” said Giudice. “Our prayers and thoughts are with the family at this time.”

Firefighters rappelled from upper floors to gain access to the elevator shaft.

A subsequent investigation would reveal the man’s cause of death, Bellamy said.

“We don’t know exactly what the cause of death would be besides the fact that the maintenance worker was working inside the elevator shaft when we rescued those three folks,” he said.

The last local incident involving an elevator occurred in July 2014, when a 25-year-old construction worker was killed on Florida State University's campus.

In that case, officers were called to the construction site of a new residence hall. Authorities discovered the body of Travis Joseph Miller, a subcontractor on the job, who was killed when he got trapped between a construction elevator and the building.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which cited Consumer Product Safety Commission and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data — about 30 people are killed in elevator and escalator incidents in the United States each year. Elevators cause almost 90% of the deaths, the CDC said, with injuries to those working near elevators responsible for about 14 deaths annually. Half of the deaths of workers working in or near elevator shafts are because of falls into the shaft.

Elevator accident facts

• Half of the fatalities involved people working in or around elevator shafts.

• Most of the deaths involve falls into elevator shafts.

• About five people are killed at their workplace and another five are killed outside their workplace each year.

• From 1992 to 2009, 89 people died in elevators at their workplace. 60% involved falls and nearly 7% involved collapses.

• From 1997 to 2010, 91 people died in elevators outside their workplace. 56% involved falls and 2% involved collapses. One person died of a heart attack when the elevator shook. 11 of the deaths were in Florida.

Source: 2013 study by the Center for Construction Research and Training

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