Posted on 04/21/2008 10:33:36 AM PDT by EveningStar
NEW YORK - A time-lapse video of a man trapped in an elevator for 41 hours has become something of an Internet sensation after surveillance camera footage emerged after nearly a decade...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
That sounds like a design flaw. Why would it be possible for a machine designed to carry humans to go underwater? There should have been a water level override of some sort.
Never been stuck in an elevator but I was stuck on an escalator for a couple of hours once.
I would have been stir crazy, probably from rage alone.
Who was assigned to monitor the security cameras? Surely a building this big in New York city has active security?? Didn’t the guy go to the bathroom in 40+ hours? How much compensation did the guy get from being held hostage?
I know, you see the others being worked on while he is sleeping and doing nothing. He showed amazing control of his uh, bodily functions.
I mean, if your alone in a elevator you can’t blame anyone else. And god knows exactly how long your gonna be in there. Incredible.
So do my sister and I. We were stuck in an elevator when we were very young.
I only get on elevators if there is no other choice, and never in parking garages.
If only I had 41 hours to waste!
I got stuck in an elevator in Quebec. I forced the doors opened and said to no one in particular that I was getting off. They all followed me. I nearly freaked out when it first stopped; do not want a repeat.
Video on youtube said he was a smoker. Don’t elevators have smoke detectors? Seems having a smoke would have been enough to get someone’s attention...
If not that, how about taking off your shoe and making some noise instead of just waiting? Especially if you can hear the nearby elevators moving up and down in the adjoining shafts...
Having the brick wall behind the doors when he finally pulled them open must have been a real drag.
Up and Then Down: The lives of elevators
The New Yorker article associated with the video is pretty interesting, albeit a bit long.
There are a lot of details unrelated to this man's story, but it's worth a read.
That’s great. I can’t believe he didn’t have a few smokes. How did he relieve himself?
Worse yet, he stepped onto the elevator after spending the evening feasting on curry chicken and black coffee.
He didn't pry the elevator doors open half a dozen times just to see if he'd magically moved.
You can see him holding the doors open with his feet while his hands are, um, out of view.
Good call and I have to admit that is a smart move.
From the article:
White sued the managers of the midtown skycraper and the elevator maintenance company and won an undisclosed settlement.
Here's what I skimmed to learn: After opening the elevator doors, he peed down the shaft between the elevator and the cinder block shaft wall. Also this:
He got a lawyer, and came to believe that returning to work might signal a degree of mental fitness detrimental to litigation. Instead, he spent eight weeks in Anguilla. Eventually, Business Week had to let him go. The lawsuit he filed, for twenty-five million dollars, against the building’s management and the elevator-maintenance company, took four years. They settled for an amount that White is not allowed to disclose, but he will not contest that it was a low number, hardly six figures. He never learned why the elevator stopped; there was talk of a power dip, but nothing definite. Meanwhile, White no longer had his job, which he’d held for fifteen years, and lost all contact with his former colleagues. He lost his apartment, spent all his money, and searched, mostly in vain, for paying work. He is currently unemployed.
Quite a sad tale in the end.
Are you from A&M?
One youtube comment said he used it when he was opening the doors
Not nearly as funny as the commercial with two liberals "stuck" on a stalled escalator!
Regards,
GtG
Yes, it is. I would have posted that excerpt as you did, but I think we aren't allowed to post even excerpts from The New Yorker here.
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