2 injured after elevator falls at Honolulu Community College

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Honolulu EMS said two people were injured, one of them seriously, after an elevator at Honolulu Community College fell from the third floor to the ground level on Thursday afternoon.

Officials said at about 1 p.m., two HCC employees, a 58-year-old woman and 50-year-old man, were riding an elevator in the library building when suddenly it went into a free fall.

Honolulu EMS paramedics responded and treated two people at the scene. The faulty elevator appeared in tact.

EMS said the woman sustained a lower back injury and was taken to the hospital in serious condition.

The man sustained minor injuries and declined transport to the hospital.

“We do go to elevator incidents. They are though usually people trapped in an elevator at a stationary floor, not so much a freefall, multiple flights. In my experience, I’ve never heard of one happening,” said Sunny Johnson, EMS paramedic supervisor.

“The health and safety of our students and faculty are of utmost importance to us,” said HCC Chancellor Karen Lee. “We always want to make sure that things are maintained and taken care of and operating safely. So these elevators as well as all of our elevators are maintained regularly. They were maintained and were doing fine just up until this incident.”

HCC said the elevator was installed in 2014.

“We did have a power surge earlier. So we don’t know if that’s related, but we’re just going to be checking it out and making sure that before we turn the elevators back on that it is completely 100% safe,” Lee said.

Otis elevator technicians are investigating what caused the freefall.

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