Inspection Detail

Inspection: 125448332 - Comfort Inn Landmark

Inspection Information - Office: Va-E-Manassas (Regional Office)- Safety 0355114

Investigation Summary

On July 20, 1997 at approximately 8:37 a.m., Employee #1, a night maintenance person for a six-story, multi-building hotel, was to have worked between 4:00 p.m. and 12:00 midnight and was not seen by any other employees after 10:00 p.m. The following day a maintenance supervisor was checking a defective elevator in the basement level of elevator shaft #1. The supervisor, unable to gain entry into the disabled elevator, gained access to the shaft through the door of an adjoining elevator. He found the body of Employee #1 crushed between the elevator car and the vertical support assembly of elevator #1 at approximately 8 feet above the bottom of the shaft. Employee #1 was pronounced dead at 11:20 a.m upon arrival at the hospital. Medical personnel estimated that he had been dead more than six hours. A night security officer, who had attempted to get an elevator from his basement patrol area at approximately 12:00 midnight, noted that the elevator car came down to the basement, then stopped operating. The body of the employee had apparently tripped one of the safety interlock devices on the elevator, terminating power to that piece of equipment.

Keywords: WORK RULES, CAUGHT BETWEEN, CRUSHED, ELEVATOR, ELEVATOR SHAFT