Boston Woman Dies in 'Gruesome' Elevator Accident

'I heard just an ungodly scream'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 15, 2020 4:34 PM CDT
Boston Woman Killed in Elevator Accident
The scene outside 1140 Commonwealth Ave.   (YouTube)

A Boston woman was killed Monday in a accident involving what a neighbor calls a "terrible old elevator." Carrie O'Connor, a 38-year-old lecturer at Boston University, was pronounced dead at the scene after the accident around 5pm, WCVB reports. She had recently moved into the building in the city's Allston neighborhood. Witnesses said the elevator suddenly dropped while O'Connor was loading a large package into it. "I heard just an ungodly scream and we ran into the hallway and saw a gentlemen who was in distress screaming and hyperventilating and saying 'she’s dead, she’s dead,'" a woman who lives in the building tells Boston 25.

The woman was found in the elevator on the first floor. Building resident Nevada Foskit tells CBS Boston that the elevator is old-fashioned. "It’s a two-slide door system and unless that door is completely shut, it does not move ever," Foskit says. "If something did happen, it clearly had to be faulty." The building dates to 1920. Resident Eric Carmichael says it is common for residents to send packages down in the elevator and pick them up in the lobby, but the combined weight of O'Connor and the package may have been too much for the elevator. "It was kind of gruesome,” Carmichael says. "Terrible old elevator that should have been probably kept up better." Police and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration are investigating the accident. (More elevator stories.)

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