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NEWS
| april 8, 2004
Safety
Elevator traps 6 Wednesday
Five students and 1 lecturer are
stuck for 35 minutes as they wait for officials to arrive.
By Jessica
Freeman
Contributor to The Shorthorn
A malfunctioning elevator trapped six people in the Fine Arts Building
on Wednesday morning, the third such incident reported on campus
this week.
The five students and one lecturer were stuck for about 35 minutes
before workers got the elevator moving again, said communication
lecturer Philip Vinson, who was among those trapped.
“I was going to my 10 o’clock class, and I got on the
elevator on the second floor,” he said. “I was going
up. When I got to three, the elevator stopped, and we heard this
noise like the doors were trying to open but they wouldn’t.”
He said one student was able to call for assistance from a cell
phone. A secretary also called for help. Vinson voiced frustrations
at the timeliness of police response.
“I would say 35 minutes is pretty slow,” he said. “We
were pretty unhappy about how long it took.”
Campus Police Lieutenant Jay Tillerson said contract technicalities
with the Otis Elevator Company prevent police from helping assist
escapes except in emergency situations. The Otis Company could not
be reached for comment.
“[The contract] says basically that if we touch any of the
elevators, it nulls and voids the contract,” Tillerson said.
He said that while police are called to respond to malfunctions,
they only contact the fire department for emergency response when
it is necessary.
If there is not a medical emergency or a need for immediate medical
attention, the officer just keeps constant communication with the
person trapped in the elevator, he said.
Vinson said the incident came as no surprise and voiced his frustration
at the recurrence of elevator problems.
“That elevator has been going out once or twice a week for
the last month,” he said. “They come out and fix it,
and it goes out again,” he said. “UTA spends a lot of
money for a lot of things, but it looks to me that they’re
not spending their money on keeping their elevators in the best
condition.”
At 7 p.m. Tuesday evening, students were reportedly trapped in the
Architecture Building elevator. The building was evacuated after
reports of smoke caused by a rubber belt overheating, according
to Battalion Chief Neil Strasser.
Music education senior Hashem Assadullahi said that he was also
trapped in an elevator in the music wing of the Fine Arts Building
for about 15 minutes Monday morning.
“I decided to get up early in the morning so I could practice,”
Assadullahi said. “I got to the second floor, but the doors
didn’t open.”
Larry Harrison, Associate Director of Physical Plant, said elevators
in the Fine Arts Building were “now in the worst condition
of any of them.”
“The university is going to ask for funds to modernize the
elevators in the Fine Arts Building in the next budget year,”
Harrison said.
However, Harrison praised the Otis Elevator Company, which maintains
the 64 elevators on campus.
“We’re talking about a large number of elevators with
a high amount of use,” Harrison said. “I think Otis
has done a terrific job.”
CORRECTION
This story should have said Communications Lecturer
Phil Vinson was disappointed with the response time of Otis Elevator
Company.
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