MAN KILLED BY DUMBWAITER IN "FREAK ACCIDENT"

A man working at a restaurant in Queens, NYC, was crushed to death by a dumbwaiter on July 15 in what is being called a "freak accident," the New York Post reports. The man was reportedly gathering cleaning supplies in the restaurant's basement at about 6:30 a.m. to hose down the sidewalk when he apparently engaged the lift and somehow got trapped between the lift and the basement wall. He was dragged upward by the neck, and his body ended up on the sidewalk, where it was discovered by a passerby. Police said the incident was an accident, but the city's Department of Buildings was investigating. There was no record of any inspection violations regarding the dumbwaiter.