By Brittany Cleveland
Elevator failures are not uncommon at the Metropolitan campus of Cuyahoga Community College. With close to 50 reported failures in one year, administration is committed to addressing the problem.
According to a Tri-C Metro police report, a student and a staffer have experienced elevator failure. There are rumors of two other failures, that have been undocumented. Hospitality management student Nautical Jefferson was stuck in the elevator at the Metro Hospitality Center, 2033 Ontario St, leading to the parking garage. While on the phone with her mother, her mother called dispatch.
According to the report, Metro maintenance said “That they do not service this elevator [NO KEYS]” .
The elevator would later start up and open on its own. Tyra Lardell, Metro Student Life specialist, got stuck in the Metro Student Services building. According to the police report, Lardell tried to take elevator to the basement from the second floor, where the door did not open. Next,the elevator traveled fast back to the ground floor with a thud hitting the ground level and slammed Lardell into the elevator wall.
After calling campus police by pressing the elevator help button, the elevator went to floor 5 and back down to floor 1, and then slamming to the ground level, according to the report. After exiting the elevator, she drove herself to University Hospital complaining of neck, back and hip pain. She felt nauseous and vomiting, according to the report. Both Jefferson and Lardell declined to speak to The Voice on this story.
Noted in the police reports, the victims of the sudden failures had to call maintenance to report the failure, since there were no working emergency phones or buttons in the elevators. Lauren Morales, assistant in Plant Administration, told The Voice there had been 45 elevator failures since February 2017.
“The reason why the elevator in the Metropolitan Hospitality building failed, was because of its motion board failure,” Kone Elevators and Escalators said. There have been complaints of elevator failures that has happened within the last year and upcoming year but Metro campus President Michael Schoop assured that he is committed to keeping the students and faculty safe. President Schoop said
“I work with elevator contractors, which is on-call if there are any discrepancies” Schoop continues, “there are regular safety drills with the safety committee on campus.”
“We plan to upgrade some of our buildings,” said Schoop.
“Particularly the Health Careers Center, and elevators will be part of that plan.” When faced with elevator failure, remain calm.
“Being in enclosed spaces may cause some anxiety’ said the source from Kone Elevator and Escalators. They also said that due to door restrictors and control interlock safety features within the elevator, the doors will remain closed if an elevator was to fail.
According to Schoop, with all the newest changes that are happening at the metro campus, elevators will be addressed before the year is over.
