COLUMBUS, Ohio — Assistant principal attorney general Brett Kravitz was on a Rhodes Tower elevator last week when he heard a cable snap and felt the elevator descend. He thinks he dropped five or six floors.
“It felt very much like being on the demon drop where you just feel this sensation of falling. Of course, I didn’t know it was going to stop so I was thinking this could be it and thought that it might not stop,” Brett Kravitz told 10 Investigates in an interview Thursday.
Kravitz said he was on an express elevator that lacks exits between the 18th floor and the lobby of the Rhodes Tower, Columbus’ tallest skyscraper that houses many state government offices.
He said even after he felt the elevator car fall five or six floors, he suddenly came to a stop. He later would learn the elevator car’s emergency brakes worked to stop him from plummeting further.
“Of course when there is free fall, I don’t know that I am going to stop at all. So the whole thing was a pretty frightening experience,” he said.
But that elevator car shouldn’t have been operating, according to inspection records reviewed by 10 Investigates.
During elevator #10’s most recent inspection in May 2021, an inspector noted that the “unit was not in operating condition” and was “not showing the correct floor.”
A spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Commerce said its Division of Industrial Compliance, which inspects the elevators, said they have no record of the required re-inspection before the elevator resumed operating – meaning the elevator Kravitz was riding in last week should not have been operating when the cable snapped.
“It is upsetting in that this appears to be something that was entirely preventable,” Kravitz told 10 Investigates. “I am aware that some work is being done on those elevators so I am thankful that some action is being taken as a result of this preventable event.”
Kravitz said the incident left him unharmed but shaken by the near-death experience. He said his confidence in riding the Rhodes Tower elevator has been compromised as well but he is aware that repairs and re-inspections are planned.
“You would like to believe when you go into a state elevator that’s being taken care of by DAS or whatever subcontractor that they have the elevator is going to be safe, you’d like to believe that have warnings that there are problems that they get taken care of,” Kravitz said.
According to the inspector’s note following the Feb. 1 incident involving Kravitz:
“There was no indication that the car over sped nor did the car or counterweight freefall; all suspension members appear in good condition, neither the car or counterweight safeties were activated. There are indications that the counterweight governor rope became slack and came in contact with a rail bracket inside the hoistway, hence severing the rope and initiating an electrical stop, stopping the car in a blind hoistway,” the inspector wrote.
10 Investigates reached out to the Department of Administrative Services, which operates state buildings. A spokeswoman, Melissa Vince, told us that a third-party contractor manages the follow-ups on elevator inspection violations.
“As the vendor for the elevators in the Rhodes Tower, Fujitech manages follow-up on inspection violations and coordinating reinspection with the Department of Commerce when needed prior to return to service. DAS will be meeting with Fujitech this week to review the work they perform in the Rhodes Tower and their follow-up and interaction with the Department of Commerce, both generally and specifically as it pertains to Elevator 10.”