A man has died after being crushed to death by the lift in his apartment block in New York.
30-year-old Sam Waisbren, a Wisconsin native, was walking out of the lift into the lobby of his luxury apartment complex on Manhattan Promenade when the lift suddenly plunged downwards into the basement of the building.
The accident, which occurred on Thursday morning, left the tech sales executive crushed between the wall of the lift shaft and the rapidly descending lift.
The lift was packed at the time of the incident, but only Waisbren was hurt. One man had already escaped from the lift before it plunged and five people were still inside but uninjured by the fall.
Waisbren had been living in New York for six years, but it isn't immediately clear how long he had been a resident in the $3,600 per month residential building.
On Thursday night, Waisbren's father Charles told the New York Daily News that his son had complained about the elevators in the building before his tragic death.
Manhattan Promenade was fined $1,300 back in May after it was discovered by inspectors that a "safety feature on one of the elevators was either tampered with or disabled."
The luxury apartment building has also had "17 past building violations, none of them for elevator issues."
Sam's bereaved father, Charles Waisbren said: "My feeling about New York is you pay a bazillion dollars for rent, the least they could do is provide safety,"
He added that it would be "hard to keep on living" after the unfortunate death of his son.
He continued: "Sam was an absolutely wonderful young man. Smart and loving and very, very sensitive. He had his whole life ahead of him.
"It's just horrible to feel that he's not going to grow up to have children, to have his own family, progress in his career,"
Other residents in the building have spoken about the elevators since Waisbren's death, too.
ABC7 reporter CeFaan Kim reported that one resident said the building had "constant issues with the elevators."
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The resident added: "Super scary. They always jump between floors. It's like that Halloween horror nights thing that hops up and down,"
The Fire Department of New York confirmed that Waisbren was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident is now to be investigated by the Department of Buildings, who told DailyMail.com: "DOB is investigating this incident aggressively and will take all appropriate enforcement actions.
"Elevators are the safest form of travel in New York, due to the city's stringent inspection and safety requirements.
"We're determined to find out what went wrong at this building and seek ways to prevent incidents like this in the future."
Featured Image Credit: FDNY
