Plunging elevator kills apprentice mechanic, NY officials say. Co-worker now charged

A 67-year-old mechanic faces a homicide charge after a falling elevator crushed his apprentice in 2021, New York prosecutors said.

The senior mechanic, since retired, and a 25-year-old apprentice were modernizing an elevator in a Bronx building, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said in a Tuesday, May 2, news release.

The mechanic sent Joseph Rosa to the pit at the bottom of the shaft to cut some cables, causing the elevator to plunge six stories and kill him, prosecutors said.

The senior mechanic had failed to properly secure the elevator car before directing Rosa to cut the cables, the release said.

“If safety measures had been followed, the victim would still be alive today,” said District Attorney Darcel D. Clark in a statement.

New York City Department of Investigations Commissioner Jocelyn Stauber called Rosa’s death “entirely preventable.”

The mechanic is due back in court in June on a charge of criminally negligent homicide, the release said.

This story was originally published May 3, 2023 at 12:25 PM with the headline "Plunging elevator kills apprentice mechanic, NY officials say. Co-worker now charged."