Living in a city that reaches toward the clouds means we rely on vertical transportation every single day just to get to our offices or our homes. Most of the time, we step into the cab and press a button without giving the machinery a second thought, but when things go wrong, the results are often life-altering. Elevators can drop suddenly or doors can close with too much force, leaving people with broken bones or worse.
At The Silbowitz Firm in New York City, Mitchell Silbowitz has spent years standing up for people who are experiencing these traumatic moments. Since 1989, he has been fighting for injury victims and has helped his clients win more than 1,000 cases across New York City, Long Island, and various other counties throughout the state. Whether you were hurt in a high-rise office building or a local apartment complex, our team is prepared to stand by you as you seek the support you need to heal.
Mitchell Silbowitz has a long history of handling complex situations involving car crashes, falls, and accidents on construction sites. This deep background in New York law allows our firm to hold building owners and maintenance companies accountable when they fail to keep their equipment in a safe condition for the public.
Recent Data Regarding Elevator Safety in the Five Boroughs
The number of people getting hurt in elevator incidents across the city is currently moving in the wrong direction. Information from the Department of Buildings shows that their special elevator unit had to respond to 100 different accidents that involved physical injuries during 2023. This is a significant jump when you compare it to the 76 injuries reported in 2022 and the 50 injuries that happened back in 2021.
With more than 70,000 elevators moving people up and down throughout the city, even a small mistake in a maintenance log can lead to a terrible outcome for a rider. These numbers suggest that building safety is not always the priority it should be, which puts every person who uses a lift at risk of a sudden mechanical failure.
Why Elevator Systems Fail and Cause Injuries
Most elevator crashes do not happen for no reason at all, and usually, there were warning signs that someone in charge decided to overlook. Our legal team looks into these incidents to find the specific failures that led to the injury, such as:
- Neglecting routine maintenance by skipping safety checks or waiting too long to fix parts that are wearing out.
- Door sensors that fail to work, which can lead to a person getting crushed or caught as the heavy doors close.
- Leveling problems where the cab stops slightly above or below the floor, creating a ledge that causes people to trip and fall.
- Electronic control system errors that cause the elevator to speed up or stop with a violent jolt.
- Bad inspections where a technician signs off on the machinery without actually looking at the cables or the brakes.
- Problems with how the elevator was put together when it was first installed in the building.
- Electrical surges or power failures that trap people inside or cause the emergency brakes to lock up.
When we find these issues, we work with mechanical experts who understand the inner workings of these machines to prove that the accident could have been avoided if the right steps had been taken.
Immediate Actions to Take After an Elevator Accident
The minutes and hours after you get hurt are confusing, but the things you do during this time will affect your ability to recover money later. If you are experiencing the aftermath of an elevator or escalator crash, you should try to follow these steps:
- Seek medical attention from a doctor right away to check for internal damage or head injuries.
- Report the incident to the building manager or the owner of the property as soon as possible.
- Document the scene by taking photos of the elevator buttons, the floor level, and your own physical injuries.
- Get the names and phone numbers of anyone else who was in the elevator or saw what happened.
- Keep the clothes and shoes you were wearing because they might have grease or marks that help prove your case.
- Reach out to a legal professional who knows how to handle these specific types of building accidents.
Seeking Financial Compensation
Getting the money you need to pay for your recovery involves different legal paths depending on how and where the accident happened. We look at every option, including:
- Filing a personal injury claim against the person or company that owns the building.
- Seeking workers’ compensation benefits if the injury happened while you were doing your job.
- Starting a product liability case if the elevator had a design flaw or a part that was made incorrectly by the manufacturer.
Proving Fault in Elevator Accident Case
Winning a case like this requires showing that someone else was careless with the safety of the elevator. We look through maintenance records and inspection reports to see if the building followed the city codes or if they were trying to save money by cutting corners on repairs.
Determining Responsibility for a Faulty Elevator
Because elevators are complicated, there are often several different people or companies who might be to blame for your injury. We look at everyone involved, such as:
- Building owners who have a legal duty to keep their premises safe for everyone who enters.
- Property management groups that handle the daily operations and scheduling of repairs for the building.
- Maintenance companies that are paid to come in and make sure the cables and motors are working the way they should.
- Manufacturers who built the elevator or the specific parts that broke during the accident.
- Contractors who were hired to install the system but did a poor job that led to a future failure.
- Inspection services that failed to notice a code violation that was sitting right in front of them.
- Companies that supply the specific electrical components or sensors that stopped working correctly.
Losses for Which You May Be Compensated
The impact of a serious injury can be felt in every part of your life, from your bank account to your ability to sleep at night. We push for a recovery that covers all the ways you have suffered, including:
- All of your medical bills for the hospital, the ambulance, and any surgery you might need.
- Money for the time you had to miss at work and the raises or promotions you might lose because you cannot do your job.
- Payment for the physical pain and the mental trauma that comes with being trapped or hurt in a mechanical crash.
- Long-term disability support if you can no longer walk or move the way you did before.
- Compensation for scars or physical changes to your body that affect your self-image.
- The cost of changing your home to make it easier to live in if you now have a permanent disability.
- Money for the loss of your ability to enjoy your life and your favorite activities.
- Emotional distress for those who deal with a fear of small spaces or high buildings after the event.
Time Limits for Starting Your Legal Action
New York has very strict rules about how much time you have to file a lawsuit after you get hurt. For most cases against private owners, you have three years to start your legal action, but that time moves very quickly when you are focused on getting better. If the accident happened in a building owned by the city or the state, you have much less time and usually must file a special notice within just 90 days of the injury. If you wait too long, you will lose the right to ask for any money at all.
Mitchell Silbowitz makes sure that all of your paperwork is filed on time so that your rights are kept safe. If the person who got hurt was a child, the clock usually starts on their 18th birthday, but it is still better to start the process early while the evidence is still easy to find.
How The Silbowitz Firm Assists Injured Clients
When you choose to work with our injury attorneys, you are getting a team that knows how to go through the difficult parts of the legal system so you do not have to do it alone. We offer:
- A fast investigation where we send people to look at the elevator and grab records before they are deleted or changed.
- Connections with the top experts in the elevator industry who can explain to a jury exactly why the brakes or the doors failed.
- Personal attention from Mitchell Silbowitz and our senior staff rather than having your case handed off to someone with no experience.
- Help with every part of the claim, including talking to the insurance adjusters and gathering all your medical records.
- A team that is ready to take your case into a courtroom if the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement.
- A promise that you do not pay us anything unless we win money for you, which means there is no risk in starting your case.
If you are experiencing the pain of a severe injury from a lift or an escalator, call us today at (646) 419-5344. We have been helping New Yorkers since 1989, and we are ready to help you too.