Elevator experts split on fatal fall scenario
By: Will Reisman
Examiner Staff Writer
December 5, 2008
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| Human remains were found in an elevator shaft at 61 New Montgomery St. Monday morning. (John Upton/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — A reported theory from police that an Oakland doctor pried his way out of a stalled elevator door before falling to his death has received conflicting reports from industry and safety officials concerning its plausibility.
The decomposing body of Dan Kliman was discovered Monday at the bottom in an elevator shaft in the historic Sharon Building at 55 New Montgomery St.
Police have not released to the general public any details on the case, except to say that Kliman, an Oakland-based doctor and member of a vocal pro-Israeli group, “inexplicably fell” about six stories down the elevator shaft on Nov. 25 — six days before his body was discovered.
Rabbi Judah Dardik, a Rabbi at the Beth Jacob Congregation in Oakland and a close friend of the deceased doctor, said police told him that Kliman became trapped in the elevator between the sixth and seventh floor, and accidentally fell to his death after forcibly opening the doors in his bid to lower himself down to the landing several feet below him.
Ed Donoghue, spokesman for the National Elevator Industry, said that there are a “number of incidents” each year when stranded passengers fall to their deaths after prying open elevator doors, especially in older models.
“We see instances where people try to slide out on their stomachs on the bottom of the cars,” Donoghue said. “And somehow the body gets underneath the car and falls down the shaft.”
Donoghue said there are no national statistics on falling deaths in elevators. He said in the mid-1980s, a national requirement was put into place to prevent elevator doors from opening.
Despite Donoghue’s assertions that these scenarios not only happen, but they do with some frequency, officials from the state agency that monitors elevators say it’s impossible to open the doors — if the machinery is functioning properly.
California’s elevator laws, which were established in 1989, stipulate that the doors cannot be opened more than 4 inches once the car is 18 inches above the landing, according to Dean Fryer, spokesman for the California Department of Occupational Safety and Health.
Although the elevators in the Sharon Building are more than 90 years old, they were modernized in 1976 and passed an annual safety inspection Nov. 4, according to Erika Monterozza, a spokeswoman for Cal-OSHA.
Cal-OSHA inspectors annually test elevators on their compliance with the law, and on Nov. 4, workers inspected the elevators at the Sharon Building, Fryer said.
During that test, inspectors stopped the elevators between every floor in the building, and at no time where they able to pry open the doors from the inside, beyond the mandated 4-inch gap.
“These doors should never open if they are between floors,” Fryer said.
He said his department would have a better idea of what happened once they get a chance to conduct their own investigation into the elevator.
The elevator at the Sharon Building is maintained by Kone Inc., a Finnish-based company that has offices in San Francisco. Chuck Moore, spokesman for the company, said Kone has not been allowed to inspect the elevator, and thus could not offer any comment on the case, other than to express condolences for Kliman’s family.
The San Francisco Police Department would also not comment on the case, citing the ongoing investigation.
Kliman’s friend Dardik said the theory that Kliman pried himself out of the stalled elevator makes sense for two reasons. One was that Kliman tended to be an impatient person, and the second was the doctor’s formidable physical strength, which makes the scenario of manually prying open the door a possibility.
“It was late at night near the holiday,” Dardik said. “I’m sure he didn’t want to be stuck in there overnight. There is a chance he saw the landing and thought ‘hey I can do this.’”
Dardik said that Kliman’s laptop and a significant amount of cash were found at the scene — further indicating that his death was accidental.
Many other circumstances surrounding Kliman’s death are still outstanding.
Klman was taking classes at Pacific Arab Resources, or PAR, an Arabic-language teaching course located on the seventh floor of the Sharon Building, but there were no classes on the night of Nov. 25.
Representatives from the school have refused numerous requests from The Examiner for comment.
Also, Kliman is believed to have fallen to his death between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. — a time when the building’s front doors are closed, building manager Brad Bernheim said earlier this week. However, Bernheim said plenty of people were still in the building that night, and that the elevator has two different buttons that would signal authorities if the machinery was stalled.
Bernheim is no longer speaking to the media, following direction from the Police Department.
Some of Kliman’s friends expressed suspicion at the circumstances surrounding his death, particularly because he was an outspoken member of San Francisco Voice for Israel, a counter-protest group that frequently attended anti-Israeli rallies.
Dr. Michael Harris, Kliman’s friend and fellow member of San Francisco Voice for Israel, said that the police should conduct a thorough investigation before determining the death to be an accident.
Police spokesman Sgt. Wilfred Williams countered that “there is no indication whatsoever that foul play is involved,” in Kliman’s death.
On Friday, Kliman’s body was released from the Medical Examiner’s Office. A funeral is scheduled for Sunday at a synagogue in Schenectady, N.Y., Kliman’s original home. Dardik is also planning on holding a ceremony sometime in the next 10 days at Beth Jacob in Oakland.
Edith Kliman, Daniel’s mother, said she was “extremely proud” of all her son’s activism, which in addition to his pro-Israel position, included advocating for bicycles and for the LGBT community.
Edith Kliman said she didn’t believe there was some criminal “conspiracy” involved in her son’s death, but she did say there was some laxity on the part of the building’s owners, who were unaware for six days that Kliman was dead at the bottom of the elevator shaft. Bernheim has said that the building was not in use from Thursday to Sunday, due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
When asked if he planned on hiring an attorney, she said it was too preocuppied with her son’s death to think about that.
