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The Ghost And The Elevator

 

In the early 1990s I worked as a custodian at a hospital in Sacramento, California. Shortly before having been hired, there had been an accident involving one of the elevators. An employee had stepped into the elevator on the top floor. She became trapped between the doors when they suddenly closed. There she was caught as the elevator plunged to the bottom of the shaft. She, of course, died of her injuries.

This floor was being used as an office space for daytime clerks and secretaries. Nobody stayed in the area past 5 p.m. One of my stops on my nightly cleaning rounds was the top floor where I mopped and emptied trash cans. It usually took about 30 minutes to complete my rounds (with all of the lights on) and during this period it was not unusual to hear the sounds of a woman's shoes walking on the tile floor. At first, I would walk around looking for a late night worker, but I never found anybody.

One night when I was training my replacement, I went to the top floor with a co-worker. This co-worker was very spiritual and strong in her beliefs. Once there we heard the familiar feet on tile and they did not seem to bother my partner. We finished our rounds and went back to the elevator. We pushed the down button and after the door opened, we stepped in and waited for the doors to close. However, they did not. We began to hear the familiar footsteps again and they seemed to be getting closer. Eventually, they stopped somewhere near the elevator. I looked around and saw nobody. My co-worker grew impatient as we waited for the doors to close, and finally she called out, "You better get on if you are coming, I don't have all night". At that point the doors closed and the elevator continued on its journey.

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The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, IrishCossack, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

IrishCossack (1 stories) (1 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-10-14)
Hi all,
I'm fairly certain of the details. I started working in this hospital shortly after it had happened. I have gone on line trying to get more details, (because it was nearly 20 years ago) and I have found only one reference to it. As I remember it, there had been some issues with the elevator prior to the accident and they had not been fully resolved much like the case in New York and Texas. This worker had gone to use the elevator anyway and met with her death. I have tried to find more details, however, I have yet to come up with specifics. At the time it was covered in the local news, (Sacramento extensively. I'll try to find that reference and post it here.
clever210 (3 stories) (189 posts)
+1
12 years ago (2012-09-26)
Cosmogal, yes I remembered it from the news as well. It was horrific. I live in Ohio and it was even on the news here. I felt so bad for her and her family.: (
cosmogal926 (9 stories) (1223 posts)
+2
12 years ago (2012-09-26)
[at] clever, As I was reading this I was reminded of that very same incident that you posted the link for. It was all over the news, and word spread through every office building in Manhattan, including the one I worked in, it happened right before Christmas. After this happened I was terrified to go in the elevator. It was a freak accident, she got caught in the doors and instead of the sensor opening them back up again it took off and she was crushed.

IrishCossak, I would think after something so tragic like that it could certainly be that her spirit is still walking around the office. Thanks for sharing this with us. 😊
clever210 (3 stories) (189 posts)
+2
12 years ago (2012-09-26)
Rook,

I agree that the O/P should make sure to fact check this story. I think that is very likely that an elevator death did occur, but the details may have been embellished over time. I think that happens when stories get passed along from person to person. Just my thoughts. Maybe the O/P can do some research and find out more information.

~clever210

😊
clever210 (3 stories) (189 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-26)
I couldn't find anything on this specific incident, but I did find this relating to elevator deaths.

"The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 68 elevator-related deaths from 1992-2003 among people using elevators while at work, an average of six passenger deaths per year (see fig. 5). These included supervisors/managers, clerks/stock handlers, janitors/cleaners and their supervisors, plus a wide variety of other occupations.

Almost all the fall deaths involved falls into elevator shafts, including 18 deaths where an elevator door opened and there was no elevator car. The "caught in/between" and "struck by" deaths often involved getting caught in the elevator door or between the elevator and door or shaft."

It sounds like someone can get caught in between the door, but it is VERY rare for this to happen. This is a video describing this happening to someone...it's horrible. In this case it was due to the repairman's negligence. So terrible.

Http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/hospital-elevator-accident-caught-on-tape/1d2hkj5f1?cpkey=e0122479-dd6f-461c-96b3-dbcbc68d27b4%7C%7C%7C%7C 😢
rookdygin (24 stories) (4458 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-26)
MizMiMi02,

I found a couple of 'deaths' like the one you described... Ones that happened while someone was attempting to 'escape' a stuck elevator... At least one of them was in Sacramento... But in these instances there was already a malfunction happening and it seems as if the individual did not wait for EMS/Rescue Personnel before attempting to escape.

The feedback as been cool, but I stand by my original statement... Was that poor woman's death 'fact checked' or is it just 'building legend'?

Respectfully,

Rook
seeing (9 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-25)
thats a tragic death. Very important to be careful but accidents do happen. How did your co-worker know that it was that spirit holding the doors and when she replied to her, the doors closed.
MizMiMi02 (guest)
+1
12 years ago (2012-09-25)
Clever- Maybe they were jealous that they didn't find the link first? You never know what some people are thinking.
clever210 (3 stories) (189 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-25)
I was just referring to recent elevator deaths because of the ones mentioned by Gloria. The fact that they can be horrific. Not sure why that got negative karma. To each his own. Lol
MizMiMi02 (guest)
+1
12 years ago (2012-09-25)
Thanks for the link Clever. I don't know about Rook, but I was more so referring to the fact that the doors closing on their own and killing someone, just seems odd to me. This article states that the doors were still open when it lurched upward, and that I can imagine happening.
clever210 (3 stories) (189 posts)
+2
12 years ago (2012-09-25)
There's another recent death that sounds similar to this that happened in New York City back in December of last year.

Http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/nyregion/elevator-accident-kills-a-woman-in-a-madison-avenue-building.html
MizMiMi02 (guest)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-25)
Interesting story, and I love the attitude of your replacement.:) Is it possible that the elevator was stuck between floors, and in an attempt to escape, she tried to crawl out and was killed when the elevator became "unstuck" (what's the word i'm looking for here? Bueller? Bueller?) and plummeted? I agree with Rook, in that I can't imagine her being stuck in the actual doors.
GloriaW (2 stories) (15 posts)
+1
12 years ago (2012-09-25)
Elevator deaths are rare but I just googled it and there were three in California in 2011 alone. One almost exactly like the one IrishCossack described. Since this incident happened in the early 1990's may take a little research to find. ❤
rookdygin (24 stories) (4458 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-25)
IrishCossack,

Thank you for this most interesting submission. I have to ask some questions of you, I hope you understand.

I enjoyed this 'tale'. The footsteps made by an unseen individual are very common in residual hauntings.

I however do question the 'gruesome death' of that 'poor woman'. Elevators have many, many fail safes built into them... One of the first is that if the doors are blocked they will re-open and the elevator cannot move. The second is an emergency breaking system that is purely mechanical and does not allow the elevator to fall more than a floor or two.

The haunting here in your experience is very believable but, and I mean no offence with this, the 'tale' of that poor woman sounds to be 'urban legend'.

Thanks for sharing... Have you, or has anyone actually 'fact checked' the 'story' of that woman's death? It would take a perfect series of catastrophic failures to allow that to happen... The most unlikely being the mechanical break failure.

Respectfully,

Rook

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