A 52-year-old elevator technician died today when an elevator car plunged down the shaft and crushed him at the former Holiday Inn on Lane Avenue. James C. Higgins, an Oracle Elevator Company employee, was at the bottom of the shaft about 8 a.m. on a ladder. He and a co-worker were preparing the elevator so workers could remove furniture from the closed hotel, Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Dave Whiting said. He said mechanical or human error may be responsible for the accident.
“Because the elevator they were working on wasn’t the one that came down, they may have not shut the elevator off,” Whiting said.
The former Holiday Inn is owned by Campus Partners and leased to Ohio State, which plans to renovate the place and use it for housing for 458 students.
Whiting said Higgins had been employed by Oracle for three years. Columbus Police are investigating the death.
