To the Editor:

After having read the letters regarding the elevator accident in Stradley Hall in the Oct. 25th issue of The Lantern, I am disgusted and saddened by the finger pointing that has taken place. While everyone is sending out condolences to the family and friends of Andrew Polakowski we are pointing fingers and talking about our near misses with an elevator on campus.

Everyone has a story about the elevator breaking down on them, but did they bring it to the attention of the hall staff? Did the hall staff bring it to the attention of maintenance? Did maintenance bring it to the attention of the housing department? Did the housing department bring it to the attention of student affairs? And did student affairs bring it to the attention of the president’s office?

To sin by silence makes cowards of us all. If we are about to go placing blame, we should all be asking ourselves why not tip the university off, who have other issues on their hands other than the state of every elevator on campus in mind? We have no right to place blame since we were neither involved nor there.

The point I try to make is that we could not have anticipated this event and none of the fellow elevator riders were thinking that maybe the elevator was over capacity and I think it is reprehensible to place the blame of his death on his fellow riders.

I understand many people’s fears having lived in the Stradley, Smith, Steeb and Park buildings myself and riding an elevator everyday. I have, on occasion, had to take the stairs because of an out of service elevator as well, but getting mad and making accusations will only do more harm than good.

I will not pretend to know any of the involved people of this accident nor can I pretend to know how they feel, but if it were me in their position the last thing I would want is to be the center of attention and see finger pointing and insinuations that I am the cause of a student’s death. The best thing for us to do is to send out our condolences to Andrew’s family and keep in mind that a life or death event can occur at anytime and in place we may not be thinking of.

Adam BesandCommunicationSenior

To the Editor:

Others have written about the elevator situation and discussed the obvious questions such as who is at fault. As a graduate of engineering (BSECE), I would like to give an engineer’s viewpoint of how to solve this problem. I suggest that an audible and visual alarm system be implemented in all elevators to alert the user to overcapacity. This alarm could be set to trigger upon reaching 90% weight capacity. There might even be a recorded message as part of the alarm.

Lucas JordanOSU AlumWesterville, OH

To the Editor:

The elevator accident was tragic, and no doubt the lawyers will swarm. However, the appropriate safety question should be, can any fully functioning elevator operate correctly when 24 students are aboard? Blaming this on the alleged dilapidated condition of any elevator is irrelevant if even a properly functioning elevator cannot brake at 1,000 pounds over its operating limit. We will no doubt learn this in due course.

Edward PatrickColumbia, MD