Consultant Charlie Slater on WVLT News

Westview Tower Apartments elevator fall: expert outlines likely cause

A Qualified Elevator Inspector (QEI) spoke with WVLT News about what could have caused an elevator to plummet 11 stories at Westview Tower Apartments.

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – A Qualified Elevator Inspector spoke with WVLT News about what could have caused an elevator to plummet 11 stories at Westview Tower Apartments on Monday afternoon.

“For an elevator to fall it’s very unlikely,” Charlie Slater said. “If I had to venture a guess I would probably err on the side of human error.”

Slater is a Qualified Elevator Inspector with more than a decade experience, but did not inspect the Westview Tower Elevators. It was being serviced at the time of the fall.

“There’s definitely circumstances that can occur during a construction like project that could lead to the elevator falling,” Slater said. “It does look like a suspension failure that caused it to fall.”

Slater believes either the elevator was driven down by accident during testing or someone was trying to make an adjustment, causing the lift to drop.

“It’s a split second mistake or bad decision that leads to these sort of things occurring. Thankfully nobody was on the elevator,” Slater stated.

The State’s Department of Labor and Workface Development states elevators must be inspected every six months.

Crews will have to dismantle the elevator and replace it, a cost of more than $200,000 according to Slater.

We tried multiple times to get answers from the property. They did not answer our calls and declined to answer our questions via email.

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