Lucia Duran

Trapped in an elevator

Trapped: Online Only Video: The New Yorker

This week in the magazine, Nick Paumgarten writes about the lives of elevators, and tells the story of Nicholas White, who was trapped in an elevator in New York City’s McGraw-Hill building for forty-one hours. Here is a condensed look at White’s ordeal, as captured by the building’s security cameras.

Father: She didn't say, "I'm not in" She said, "We're not in" "We," you see, "we" Now what does "we" mean.

Bobby: I believe it's the plural form, indicating more than one. Do you want me to conjugate that for you, pop? Do you know what conjugate means, dad?

ThomasC

Re: Trapped in an elevator

That was a great read. Thanks, Lucia!

Michael_K_Sr

Re: Trapped in an elevator

Excellent article when I read it last week. I found the story about White to be less engaging than the discussion on elevator design.

KurtEP

Re: Trapped in an elevator

I was trapped in an elevator for about 40 minutes a few years ago. The fire department came and got me out (wish I could have taken those guys out for beers, but they were on duty). I've also been trapped for five hours on a runway on a small airplane. That was a lot worse...

Lay down your law books now, they're no damned good -- The Eagles

Edwin-S

Re: Trapped in an elevator

Good article. Amazing that the guy is still unemployed at this point in time. The stuff on elevator design was pretty interesting.

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Jay H

Re: Trapped in an elevator

I saw a video with Diane Sawyer of Mr White, since it was a friday and stuck for 41 hours, he was there for quite a long time, I wonder if he was able to get time and a half for that??? :-)

Jay

p.s. it was also very fitting that last night at 8pm EDT, Dirty Jobs has a blurb on cleaning the bottom of the elevator shaft...

You are the crispy noodle in the vegetarian salad of life

Adam Lenhardt

Re: Trapped in an elevator

When we all bitch and moan about frivolous lawsuits, that's the side of things we don't see. Most of these people, who eventually settle out of court if the suit isn't dismissed outright, are really just shooting themselves in the foot. No one wants to hire someone who sued a previous employer. It's just asking for trouble. Also, since people tend to live off the settlement money for a while, there's a pretty big gap in their employment history that looks suspicious.
I won't say that the claim in this case didn't have merit, because people have died from dehydration at around 41 house, but he's right to blame himself for his current situation. The strongest statement he could have made would have been to show up at his desk on Monday.

Edwin-S

Re: Trapped in an elevator

The thing is....did he sue his employer? From what I read he sued the building management and maintenance company. Business Week looked like they just had their offices in the building. Are they part of McGraw-Hill?

Still, he should have gone back to work and sued them for negligence, especially as it relates to the performance of the building's security gaurds. There was a security camera in the elevator; yet no security guard noticed that the same person was in the elevator for more than forty hours. His law suit could not be dismissed as "frivolous".

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Adam Lenhardt

Re: Trapped in an elevator

I think you're right, it was the building not the company (as it should be) although his lawyers probably blanketed everybody to go for the deep pockets. Regardless, companies aren't fond of litigious people.

For him, it must be like those people who win the lottery and it ends up destroying their lives.

Except he didn't even get the buzz of winning the lottery.

John_Bonner

Re: Trapped in an elevator

Business Week is owned McGraw-Hill.
I worked in that building for five years, but left in 1996.

JB

Kreisler

Re: Trapped in an elevator

what a nightmare

Yee-Ming

Re: Trapped in an elevator

I got stuck in an elevator once, but fortunately for less than an hour. It was after office hours (around 630?), I was returning to the office after a long meeting outside, then it simply stopped working. Fortunately in this day of cellphones, it wasn't difficult to kick up a fuss. What was weird was that after speaking to security over the intercom, and them reassuring me they'd called maintenance to fix the problem and get me out, about half an hour later I buzzed again, and the guy expressed surprise that I was still in the elevator!