Israeli man, 37, crushed as he tried to escape overloaded, stalled elevator in Brooklyn luxury apartment building
BY RYAN SIT, LAURA BULT, GREG B. SMITH, RICH SCHAPIRO NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Saturday, October 3, 2015, 3:21 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/brooklyn-man-crushed-escape-stalled-elevator-article-1.2382708
The fatal elevator incident took place in The Espoir building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, early Friday.
An Israeli man trying to escape a stalled Brooklyn elevator suffered a gruesome death early Friday after the lift suddenly dropped and pinned his head between its roof and the floor.
Investigators believe the elevator inside The Espoir building in Williamsburg was overloaded with about 14 people when Eran Modan, 37, made his doomed bid to escape about 4:15 a.m., sources told the Daily News.
A security video that captured the stomach-churning mishap shows the elevator lurch down onto Modan just as he was trying to climb out into the lobby, sources said.
“His head was out and his body was in,” said the victim’s friend and roommate Mona Zarrin Ramsdell, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Ramsdell said she dashed out of a hatch in the suspended elevator and raced up to the lobby to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to her dying pal.
“I got up to him and it looked like he was dead,” she said.
“I felt his pulse stop and he was dead. I was telling him, ‘I love you, baby. You’ll be OK.’ I started singing to him.”
Eran Modan had stepped into the elevator with his friend Mona Zarrin Ramsdell just after 4:15 a.m. on Friday. He was killed when he tried to get out of the stalled elevator.
A 37-year-old Jewish man died after falling from an elevator in a upscale building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Friday morning. Oct. 10, 2015.
Eran Modan, who lived in Queens and is an Israeli citizen, was at 156 Hope St. around 4:15 a.m., when he boarded the elevator to make his way out of the building. A 37-year-old Jewish man died after falling from an elevator in a upscale building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Friday morning. Oct. 10, 2015. Eran Modan, who lived in Queens and is an Israeli citizen, was at 156 Hope St. around 4:15 a.m., when he boarded the elevator to make his way out of the building. Enlarge
Eran Modan had stepped into the elevator with his friend Mona Zarrin Ramsdell just after 4:15 a.m. on Friday. He was killed when he tried to get out of the stalled elevator.
As she continued to breathe air into Modan’s lungs, he showed brief signs of life, Ramsdell said.
“I could feel him breathe back with me,” she said. “His right eye opened a little.”
But it didn’t last.
“I could just feel his energy die,” Ramsdell said.
Modan suffered extensive trauma to his head and chest and was pronounced dead on the scene, cops said.
Modan and the others entered the lift at the posh building’s lobby before it lurched down and stalled, cops and witnesses said.
The security video makes clear the lift, which has a capacity of 10 people, was carrying far too many people, said elevator inspector Scott Schindler.
Schindler, an inspector for Preferred Elevator who examined the lift this past July, said the video depicts the elevator stopping and its doors opening up, but it’s nowhere near level with the floor.
A man is seen trying to climb out when the elevator suddenly falls, trapping his upper body between the floor and the top of the lift.
“I know exactly what it was. They have it on tape. They overloaded the elevator,” Schindler said. “It was 14 people in the elevator and it’s on tape.”
The elevator — which has had four violations, all resolved, since 2013 — has a notorious past, records show.
Just three years ago, the city received repeated complaints about the lift that foreshadowed the tragedy.
Pictured is the victim's roommate and witness to the accident, Mona Zarrin Ramsdell. She gave the victim mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but he could not be saved.
Pictured is the victim's roommate and witness to the accident, Mona Zarrin Ramshell. Police investigate the scene where a person was pinned beneath an elevator in a private residence in Brooklyn. The incident occurred at 156 Hope St. in Williamsburg. A man died in an elevator at 156 Hope Street after trying to leap from an opening where the elevator was stalled. As he made his attempt, the elevator shifted and he was trapped in between the opening and the elevator. The time was 4:30 am. The tenant expired shortly after.
Pictured is the victim's roommate and witness to the accident, Mona Zarrin Ramsdell. She gave the victim mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but he could not be saved.
One of the callers to the Buildings Department reported on Nov. 26, 2012 that the “elevator will only go up and only opens half way.”
The complainant stated the lift “wobbles and jerks up and down” and stated it was “unsafe to get in.”
The elevator was deemed “unsatisfactory” after a June 26, 2014 inspection. But Schindler signed off on a “satisfactory” grade July 13, 2015, records show.
“We inspected the equipment,” Schindler told The News. “Everything passed inspection. All the safeties work. Everything was OK.”
Buildings Department Commissioner Rick Chandler vowed a full investigation.
A city official familiar with the probe said investigators have determined the elevator’s brake was unable to hold the capacity load. The city intended to perform a full load test before allowing it to resume service.
The man who died in the lobby of the luxury apartment building was identified as Eran Modan. He did not living in the building.
The 37-year-old man was crushed by a stalled elevator, according to witnesses. The victim (not pictured) died in the lobby.
Modan’s friends were struggling to cope with his horrific death.
“My stomach flipped,” Eyal Tov, 33, said. “It’s unbelievable, it’s so unreal. It’s so unexpected from an elevator, something you use all the time. It’s 2015.”
A native of Tel Aviv, Modan had been living in New York — most recently in Maspeth, Queens — for a few years.
“Can’t believe this is happening,” one pal wrote on Facebook. “I will always be grateful and honored to have known you.”
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