Thursday, December 15, 2011

History of elevator problems at 285 Madison Ave

From the Daily News:

The elevators at 285 Madison Ave. have a history of defects, “unsatisfactory” inspections and hazardous code violations, but officials Wednesday insisted recent issues involved minor matters unrelated to safety.

City Buildings Department records show the 13 elevators in the building - owned and managed by Young & Rubicam - have been hit with 56 violations since 1999, including 34 for “failure to maintain elevators.”

In 1995, the city cited the owner for 11 “hazardous” violations, all related to maintenance issues. Citations dropped off but picked up again in 2000, followed by several more in 2001 and 2003.

In one 2003 inspection, officials noted a complaint about “a grinding noise” in an elevator.

All of the maintenance violations were listed as “corrected.”

Then last December all the elevators received an “unsatisfactory” rating after a review by a private inspection company. All elevators must be inspected four times every two years.

Some of the elevators deemed “unsatisfactory” were listed as “corrected,” but the one in which the accident occurred was not.

In June, inspectors discovered “defects” in all the elevators in the building during a routine inspection, records show.

On Wednesday Buildings Department spokesman Tony Sclafani dubbed all the issues raised in both recent inspections as nonsafety related, describing the problems as “paperwork related.”

He noted that the elevator in question was ordered shut down and an investigation is underway.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

New York City is a place ruled by greed and stupidity where everyone pays the most and gets the least. Cutting corners to make a buck is the way of life here.

FlushingRepresenter said...

Tt goes to show that not only poor people get the rough end of the stick and even big executives can fall victim to the neglect of small things like elevator repair.

Unknown said...

These are few greedy people who would have done it with false reports. The regular Elevator inspections nyc is very important and honest report should be submitted.