Student braves elevator malfunction
You may have seen movies or TV shows where the elevator suddenly drops. Well, something like that happened at one of Idaho State University’s residence halls.
Vivienne Westra was in the elevator with her two friends when the elevator descended five floors and wouldn’t open.
“We went to the sixth floor, and the door doesn’t open, then it just goes down. It kind of felt like a normal elevator going down. It got to the first floor and then it made a loud noise at the bottom which kind of freaked us out.”
They then pressed the emergency button to get help. She says the incident didn’t happen as fast as you may imagine.
“I was safe at the bottom and everything and it was kind of at floor one before I knew what was going on. It was kind of weird that the door didn’t open but it didn’t feel like we were moving very fast,” says Westra.
The other elevator in the hall still works and Westra is using it.
“I used the stairs once and kind of gave up when I was late for class this morning.”
One student reported a minor leg injury but she says overall her friends are okay and the incident is nobody’s fault. That elevator will remain closed until ISU hears back from the state inspector and the findings are complete. For now, there is one working elevator in the hall.
ISU says the students were encouraged to go to the hospital even though they said they were fine overall. They say all campus elevators go through annual inspections from the state and the elevator company.
