By Murray Weiss and Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN — The Department of Buildings has launched a probe of Transel Elevator, the repair company that performed work on a Madison Avenue elevator just before it crushed Young & Rubicam ad executive Suzanne Hart to death.
The investigation is focusing on the repairs done to the elevator at Y & R's headquarters at 285 Madison Ave., where the tragedy unfolded Wednesday, but will also include an inspection of the company's work at other buildings as well as its operational protocols, a department spokesman said.
According to a source, the city's last fatal elevator accident, on Sept. 23, involved a Transel worker. In that case, the worker fell 10 stories down a shaft at the Bricken Arcade at 230 W. 38th Street at Seventh Avenue.
Transel did not return calls for comment Thursday evening.
The company, which has over 2,500 units under maintenance contract, claims a long list of prominent New York clients, including Carnegie Hall, Louis Vuitton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium and many of the city's biggest real estate firms.
A Transel crews was called to the headquarters of Young & Rubicam on Tuesday for electrical work, and returned Wednesday morning.
After they left, at around 10 a.m., Hart stepped into an elevator they'd worked on, and it suddenly shot upward with the doors still open, authorities said. Hart, 41, was trapped in the gap between the elevator floor and the lobby walls, and was crushed to death.
