Maintenance worker crushed to death by service elevator at Jerusalem hotel

A 50-year-old hotel worker was killed Wednesday at Jerusalem’s Vert Hotel when he was crushed by a freight elevator fell.

Paramedics who arrived at the scene found the man had suffered a severe head injury and were forced to declare him dead at the scene, the Magen David Adom first responder service said.

Police are investigating the circumstances of the accident at the hotel, located on Ha’Aliya Street.

Fire and Rescue Services said they used heavy hydraulic equipment to release the man from the shaft.

The worker, a resident of the capital’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood, had worked in maintenance at the hotel for over 20 years, according to the Safe Work in Israel lobby group.

An initial investigation found the man was attending to a problem with the kitchen service lift, it said.

At some point, for reasons that were not initially clear, the elevator crushed him against the wall of the shaft.

The lobby group said the man’s death was the 25th workplace fatality in Israel since the start of the year.