Car falls down elevator shaft at Vancouver Audi warehouse

By Sonia Aslam and Denise Wong

Posted February 9, 2021 1:57 pm.

Last Updated February 9, 2021 10:26 pm.

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A man isn’t too badly hurt after the car he was in fell down a freight elevator shaft in the warehouse of a Vancouver dealership Tuesday.

Capt. Jonathan Gormick with Vancouver Fire says they were called to the Audi dealership’s warehouse along West 3rd Ave. near Fir St. at around 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday.

“Somehow, the car had come off the elevator platform and become lodged partway down the elevator shaft with an occupant in it,” he said.

The man who was inside the vehicle is an employee at the dealership.

A technical rescue team was called in.

“They were working at height above an open elevator shaft. The car was stuck in a fairly precarious position, and all of those things needs to be stabilized and dealt with before we even get people into attempt to extricate the person,” Gormick said.

After the vehicle was stabilized, it was cut open and the worker was taken to the hospital.

WorkSafeBC will look into exactly how this happened.

“It’s a pretty strange sight to see a car wedged like this in an elevator shaft. I can’t imagine how it got there, but I’ll leave it up to their experts to determine,” Gormick said.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly indicated that the incident happened at the Audi dealership

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