Woman Dies in Tragic Elevator Accident

285 Madison Avenue, Scene of Yesterday's Tragedy

Suzanne Hart, 41, died yesterday morning when she stepped into an elevator on the first floor of a building located at 285 Madison Avenue near Grand Central Station that would have taken her to Y&R (fka Young and Rubicam), a top advertising agency  in New York City.  In one bystander's account, Hart had only one foot inside before the elevator began its ascent to the second floor with the doors open.  However, officials reported that either her foot or leg was caught in the doors as they closed, thus dragging her into the shaft and killing her as the other two people in the elevator watched in horror.

FDNY responded immediately to the emergency and rescued the two people trapped between two floors, who were taken to NYU Medical Center where they were treated for trauma.  The firefighters then removed the victim's mangled body, pronouncing her dead at the scene.

Suzanne Hart was Director of New Business Content and Experience for Y&R. The company released a statement, saying in part, “We are deeply, deeply saddened to confirm that one of our employees has died. Our focus at this moment is the well-being of our employee’s family and our larger Y&R family. As you can imagine, this is a great emotional shock to all.” Ironically, Y&R announced a few days ago that it was vacating the building to move to a new headquarter location.

Investigators from the fire department, police department, and NYC's buildings department stayed on the scene to determine what caused the elevator to malfunction.