Boston University Professor Crushed By Elevator

When Carrie O’ Connor, 38, was tragically crushed by her apartment building elevator last month, she was handling a large package, which seems to be partly the reason for the accident.

On Sept. 14, the 7-and-a-half-foot-tall box O’Connor was carrying hit a switch that “sent the elevator plummeting while the door was still open,” the New York Post wrote.

According to the Post, “she was inside the lift, a maintenance person in the basement pressed the call button — signaling to the system to send the elevator down as soon as the interior gate was closed. Footage showed the package then bumping the car gate switch — mistakenly indicating that the door was closed — and the elevator began to drop with the interior gate open.”

As the French lecturer lost control of the box, she fell down the shaft backward. Her body was found pinned between the elevator and the wall of the shaft.

“I heard someone that was bringing in a package out in the hallway, and then I heard an ungodly scream,” a resident told reporters.

“Then we ran out into the hallway, and we saw a gentleman who was obviously in distress. He was screaming and hyperventilating, saying, ‘She’s dead! She’s dead!”

The 60-year-old elevator did not malfunction, according to inspector Martin Guiod. The elevator, which is, “birdcage” style “requires the occupant to close the gate manually.”

O’Connor’s official cause of death is “traumatic asphyxiation.”