When the elevator goes out in some Palm Beach County condo buildings, life can grind to a halt for the people who depend on it the most. Elderly and disabled residents say that when lifts fail for days or even months, they are effectively trapped in their homes, forced to tackle steep staircases after surgery, miss medical appointments and lean on neighbors just to get groceries or prescriptions.
Investigation Spotlights Aging Equipment And Lengthy Outages
As reported by WPTV, reporters dug through state inspection records and spoke with condo residents who described elevators sitting out of service for long stretches. The station also compiled a list of elevators the state labeled “delinquent” in its records.
One resident, Jacob Sternberg, told the station, “I fell twice. One of the falls was half a floor. And I was in the hospital,” a blunt reminder of how dangerous a broken elevator can be for people who do not have the option to simply take the stairs…