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Worker Injured in 7-Story Fall Down Williamsburg Elevator Shaft, City Says

By  Ben Fractenberg and Aidan Gardiner | November 1, 2016 11:15am | Updated on November 1, 2016 11:55am

 The 42-year-old man fell down a shaft at the Johnson Avenue building, officials said.
The 42-year-old man fell down a shaft at the Johnson Avenue building, officials said.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

WILLIAMSBURG — A man was critically hurt when he fell about seven stories down an elevator shaft in a Johnson Avenue construction site Tuesday morning, his colleague said.

The 42-year-old worker with Economy Elevator Inc. was inside 246 Johnson Ave., near Bushwick Avenue, about 10:15 a.m. when he fell down the shaft, colleagues and an FDNY spokesman said.

"Once he hit the pit, he screamed my name," said Glenn Dudley, 35, who was working at the bottom of the shaft at the time.

"He just fell. I heard him screaming my name," said Dudley, who's worked for at the elevator company for nearly 2 years.

Others on the site heard the commotion and ran over to jump into the five-foot pit of the elevator shaft, they said.

"He was helpless," said Paul Hayes, 45.

They tried to console him as he lay there begging for help.

"I was trying to tell him not to move, to be calm. I feel very, very sorry for him," said Olivery Dyer, 37, who'd been working on the plumbing in the building.

The man was moving his hands and feet when emergency medical workers put him on a stretcher and brought him to Elmhurst General Hospital where he was listed in critical condition, colleagues and an FDNY spokesman said.

Colleagues said the worker was wearing a harness when he fell. It wasn't immediately clear if he harness was attached to anything.

They also said some wooden planks may have helped break his fall.

The victim had worked for the elevator company for about 2 years and has three kids, Dudley said.

Staff at Economy Elevator didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Department of Buildings was investigating the incident, officials said.

Moshe Silberstein, who is listed as the building's owner on DOB documents, didn't immediately return a request for comment.