Inspector finds code violation in elevator where child fell

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Updated: January 31, 2011 6:12PM

A switch used by a 2-year-old boy to open an elevator door before he fell down the shaft last week should have been locked up, Joliet’s chief building inspector said Monday.

David Mackley said the exposed switch in the Plaza Hotel elevator car was a code violation. He told a city council committee that the switch either should have been in a shielded case or the device should have required a key to operate.

Joliet elevators are inspected by private companies licensed by the state fire marshal’s office. The fire marshal last week temporarily suspended the licenses of two inspectors as it continues an investigation into the accident at the hotel.

Authorities said the boy left the third-floor room where he was staying with his mother and 5-year-old sister Jan. 23, got in the elevator and began pressing buttons. When he flipped the emergency switch, the elevator stopped between floors and the interior doors opened, creating a gap that the boy fell through, plunging 30 feet to the basement.

The child was being treated for his injuries at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.