Two women claim in a lawsuit that they suffered injuries and emotional trauma when an Irvine office-building elevator they were in fell 11 stories, throwing them to the floor with "objects falling all over us."
Janet Hsu and her mother, Sufeir Hsu, became trapped in the elevator at 1 Park Plaza for about an hour despite a quick response by Orange County Fire Authority, public records show.
The Hsus filed their complaint June 22 in Orange County Superior Court against building owner The Irvine Co., ThyssenKrupp Elevator Corp. and ThyssenKrupp's service division. The lawsuit came on the final day of the two-year statute of limitations. It asks that all involved parties "take responsibility" for the accident.
"The Irvine Company is committed to the safety of its tenants and their visitors," Senior Vice President Erin K. Freeman said via email. "We are vigilant in the maintenance of our equipment and continually reinvest in our properties to ensure they exceed industry quality standards. As a matter of policy, we do not comment on pending litigation."
Vice President Richard Hein said via email: "ThyssenKrupp Elevator's top commitment is safety first for our passengers, technicians and employees. Our company's policy is not to comment on pending litigation."
The plaintiffs seek $20,666 for medical and therapy costs and unspecified amounts for physical, mental and emotional suffering. They represented themselves on the civil complaint. Here is their account of the incident:
'We felt awful and frightened'
"We entered the elevator, and I (Janet) pressed the button for the 2nd floor; instead, it passed the 2nd floor and continued ascending until the 11th or 12th floor. Then all of a sudden, the elevator started to fall. As the elevator rapidly descended, we fell hard on the floor inside the elevator, and the light fixtures like the metal brackets and glass from the ceiling started falling down, too.
"We felt awful and frightened inside the falling elevator with objects falling all around us. My glasses were knocked off my face and I got cut. We were bruised, cut and hurt from the falling objects and the impact of falling to the floor. We couldn't stand back up. We thought we were going to die.
"By some miracle, the elevator stopped falling. We pulled ourselves together upon finding the elevator not moving, hoping that now we had a chance to live. We screamed for help. The doors of the elevator didn't open, and we didn't know if it was safe to do anything in the elevator. In fear, we called 911."
Firefighters responded to the call of "elevator fall in the shaft ... unknown floors fall ... non-injury" and arrived at the scene at 5:22 p.m., dispatch records show.
The passengers were asked to open the inside portion of the elevator door, which revealed that the elevator had stopped one to two feet below the ground level. The outside door would not open.
"A person outside the elevator" said they could not open the door "and asked us to stay inside for a little if we weren't in dire need of medical," the plaintiffs wrote in their suit.
Waiting for rescue
"In the beginning, we thought if it didn't take long, we would be OK to wait. But as the time it took to open the elevator prolonged, we became anxious and fearful that there would be an explosion or something else would happen while we were trapped inside the elevator, and so we asked that the door be taken down so we could exit immediately, but the people outside kept saying that the elevator technician was coming to open the door."
"After a very long time" the technician came, made the elevator rise to the floor level and opened the doors. There were several onlookers."
Modern elevators have safety features that automatically press the brakes when the unit reaches a certain speed and lock the door so passengers don't try to escape into dangerous areas, according to Dean Fryer, a spokesman for California Department of Industrial Relations.
This month in Milwaukee, a 41-year-old man died after falling 118 feet down a shaft when he tried to free himself from a stalled elevator in an apartment building, according to GreenfieldPatch.com. Two months ago in Manhattan, 22 workers suffered minor injuries when a freight elevator suddenly plunged five stories because of a faulty brake, according to NY1.com.
State records show that all seven elevators at 1 Park Plaza -- a property valued at $42 million on this year's county tax assessment -- passed all their routine annual inspections before and after the incident, Fryer said.
The firefighters cleared the Irvine incident at 6:22 p.m., one hour after arriving. The Fire Authority incident report confirms that they attempted to open the elevator doors and that an elevator technician assisted them.
The Hsus declined further medical treatment immediately after the incident, according to an Irvine Police report.
"We had someone else come and help us drive because were still agitated and not stable to drive," the Hsus wrote in the lawsuit. "As things quieted down and time passed, we also began to find and feel our physical injuries from falling on the floor and from being hit by falling objects."
"We felt aches and pain in our body. I (Janet) felt aches and pain particularly on the left side, including my back, hip, thigh, arm and neck. My mom felt pain in her lower back, right thigh, leg, ankle, feet, arm and neck. ... We also visited the doctor, and they provided pain reliever, physical and medical therapy. As of now (June 22, 2011), we still experience pain and need to continue massage, physical and medical therapy and rest." Also, I had to replace my new pair of glasses, and both my mom and I had to miss work."
"We ask that The Irvine Company, the elevator company and all involved take responsibility for what happened and for what has happened to us."
The case is assigned to Judge David R. Chaffee. The defendants have not yet responded to the complaint. No hearings are scheduled.