The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 21, 2001 Page: 6 of 28
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21,2001
THE RICE THRESHER
IP
ing Sid party
by Kevin Grahmann
FOR THE THRESHER
Twenty-eight students were
trapped in a Sid Richardson College
elevator for almost half an hour dur-
ing the college's public Early '80s
party Saturday night.
The incident began when a group
of Lovett College students on the
first floor got into an elevator at Sid,
Will Rice College junior Carter
Batsell said. The elevator was al-
ready crowded with students.
"Lovett people rushed on scream-
ing their cheers," Batsell, who was
in the elevator at the time, said.
Lovett sophomore Sam Jones said
the Lovett students wanted to go to
the private parties.
"So we all piled into the elevator
like a bunch of lemmings as soon as
the door opened on the ground
floor," Jones said.
When the doors closed, the over-
loaded elevator dropped two feet,
then stopped. The students inside
could neither open the doors nor get
the elevator to move.
Once the passengers realized
they were trapped, reactions varied,
Lovett freshman Elizabeth Coble
said.
"Some people found it really
funny and others were upset and
scared," Coble said. "Personally, I
found the whole thing pretty amus-
ing."
Other students did not take the
situation lightly.
"It kind of sucked," Lovett sopho-
more Nath Pizzolatto said. "We
couldn't move. We were all a little
panicked."
After a few minutes, the elevator
became stuffy. One female student,
who wished to remain anonymous,
said she thought she felt faint. Hop-
ing to give her breathing room, the
passengers in the elevator raised
their arms in the air and tried to
move closer together.
"The elevator was so crowded
and hot that I started feeling faint,"
said the student. "I would like to
thank everyone for helping me out
by making more room."
According to Jones, Lovett se-
nior Graham Swift used the
elevator's phone to call University
Police, who were dispatched to the
scene. Swift called a second time,
asking the police to hurry.
While they waited to be rescued,
some passengers tried to find ways
to escape.
'It was pretty bad, but I
can still ride elevators,
so it obviously didn't
traumatize me too bad.'
— Laura Sawyer
Sid freshman
"We managed to pry the door
open a few inches to get some fresh
air," Jones said. 'Then we tried to
open the little door on the roof of
the elevator but found, much to our
disappointment, that it was sealed
shut."
Other passengers passed the time
by introducing themselves to people
they did not know on the elevator.
The students also counted to see
how many people were actually in
the elevator, Will Rice sophomore
Gretchen Raff said.
After almost half an hour, Univer-
sity Police were able to open the
elevator's doors. Students exited the
elevator slowly and carefully because
its floor was two feet below that of
the Sid lobby.
"There was one of the campos
there, saying something like, 'You
know [the elevator] does have a
weight limit ... Blah, blah, blah.'"
Jones said. "I, personally, was not
too interested in being lectured at
that point."
Pizzolatto agreed.
"We were all ready to get drunk
once we got out," said Pizzolatto.
Most students were not seriously
bothered by the incident.
"It was pretty bad, but I can still
ride elevators, so it obviously didn't
traumatize me too bad," Sid fresh-
man Laura Sawyer said.
Sid President Anisha Patel said
there had not been problems with
the elevators so far this academic
year.
"Sidizens are pretty conscious of
the elevators' limits." Patel, a senior,
said. "But inevitably when there are
guests at a party, it is likely that
people are going to abuse the eleva-
tors, and they will get stuck."
Facilities and Engineering has a
standard procedure for entrapment
in an elevator, F&E Mechanical Re-
pairs Supervisor Ronnie Cox said.
If it is a medical emergency and the
elevator is on the first floor landing,
emergency technicians can open
its doors. If the elevator is not on
the ground, the doors cannot be
opened.
A computer stores information
about the operation of the elevator.
When something goes wrong, the
computer generates error codes,
which are used by an elevator tech-
nician to determine what caused the
elevator to stop.
"The elevator at Sid Rich had
numerous error codes" Cox said.
"There was quite a bit of side-to-side
motion, and there were too many
people in the elevator."
Cox said because elevators fre-
quently stall in the residential col-
leges, a $2.5 million project to mod-
ernize elevators across campus is
ongoing. Renovations have in-
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(Q)
ERIC CARLSON/THRESHER
Sgt. Les Hulsey, center, controls the crowd of people coming out of a Sid
Richardson College elevator after 28 students were stuck for almost half an
hour during the Early '80s party.
creased the sensitivity of the eleva-
tors, causing them to stall more eas-
ily than before.
Cox said he talked to students
last year about the dangers of over-
loading elevators.
"The people need to be aware
that it's unsafe," Cox said. "A lot of
people don't realize they could be
trapped. It could be an hour before a
mechanic comes."
While the people stuck in the Sid
elevator Saturday night did not suf-
fer serious injuries, they did not en-
joy the experience.
"My future advice to students is
not to try to triple the capacity of the
elevators," said Pizzolatto.
^TIinElUT TRAlfEL
9 m VJPUrSIW ■ I llnliCli
Get me the
$%#!&<§>
out of here!
(We understand
completely.)
v
TRAVEL
2401 limes Blad. 713.524.9310
www. st at ravel. com
Test prep, admissions and guidance, r
hot as a
crowded
elevator
www.ricethresher.org
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 21, 2001, newspaper, September 21, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443179/m1/6/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.