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The Daily Tar Heel

Letter: ?Elevator victims have library’s support

TO THE EDITOR:

We would like to provide additional information regarding the Davis Library elevator entrapments you reported on Sept. 29 (“Concern escalates over elevator traps”).

Over the summer, the University undertook a complete upgrade of the Davis Library elevators, specifically to address the numerous prior malfunctions you reported. Until the evening of Sept. 23, these repairs had, to our knowledge, reduced entrapments to zero and malfunctions to a single incident.

While the Davis Library elevators are indeed very heavily used, having anyone stuck in them is not acceptable, especially since work was completed so recently.

Following the back-to-back ordeals of Mr. VanZomeren and Mr. Porson, elevator technicians shut down the malfunctioning elevator and returned the following day for a complete inspection and repair of the suspected problem. We are sorry that two of our patrons had such a poor experience and we will continue to insist that any problems should receive immediate attention from the University.

Users of the Davis Library elevators can help monitor the situation by notifying the Davis Library front desk of any problems. People who are trapped should use the phones inside the elevators, rather than calling 911 on a cellphone. These phones connect directly to the Department of Public Safety, whose personnel will initiate contact with the elevator contractor and dispatch assistance to anyone in distress.

Judy Panitch

Director of Library Communications

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