Report: Safety Device Was Disabled on NYC Elevator

An important elevator safety mechanism was turned off when an advertising executive was crushed to death trying to take the lift to her office, city investigators found in a report released Monday. A mechanic overrode the mechanism, a safety circuit that normally prevents elevators from moving with their doors open, to enable work on the midtown Manhattan elevator about a half-hour before an elevator did just that and killed Suzanne Hart on Dec. 14, the city Department of Investigation and Department of Buildings found.