Hampton Roads residents get stuck in elevator [updated]

UPDATED 11:46 a.m. cause of malfunction

Five Hampton Roads resident students started the semester by getting trapped in and later rescued from their building’s elevator Sunday night.

The group was traveling from the third floor down to the first floor a little after 11 p.m. when the elevator car started to shake. The car made a loud noise and then dropped slightly, according to Molly O’Rourke, who was one of those trapped in the car.

“All of a sudden it just dropped us,” O’Rourke said.

The students pressed the elevator buttons but were unable to initiate the car to move. They ended up using the emergency intercom to make contact with Mason authorities that came to the scene to try and pry the doors open.

The elevator car was stuck between floors and the doors could not be opened, so the fire department arrived to go through the ceiling and rescue the students out of the car’s roof.

The group was stuck for about a half hour before being rescued, according to O’Rourke.

“The ironic thing is that we all live on the first floor, O’Rourke said. “That was only like our second time in the elevator.”

UPDATE 9:54 p.m.

Hampton Roads elevator number one went down due to a sensor failure, according to Tim Burton, associate director for housing facilities.

The elevators in both Hampton Roads and Eastern Shore are new enough to be under warranty and the Hampton Roads elevator was repaired Monday by the elevator contractor.

“The technicians are back today for all three elevators in the new buildings to perform service and add equipment to minimize this in the future,” Burton wrote in an e-mail.

Heavy elevator use during move-in caused the sensors to have a build-up of residue that caused the malfunction, according to Burton.

He also said this type of problem has happened previously with some campus elevators, but the elevator technicians try to minimize these events by performing regular maintenance.