Suzanne Hart, 41, an exec at Young & Rubicam, was killed in an elevator accident at the firm's offices at 285 Madison Ave. on Dec. 13, 2011. (Facebook/Suzanne Hart) 
 
 By Murray Weiss, Mary Johnson, Sonja Sharp, Ben Fractenberg and Jon Schuppe 
 
 
 
 DNAinfo Staff 
 
 
 
 MANHATTAN — Tragic advertising executive Suzanne Hart was crushed to death in a freak elevator accident at her Madison Avenue office building just after a repair crew had finished work on it, officials said. 
 
 Workers from Transel Elevator, a repair company with a lengthy list of prominent clients, had been called to Young & Rubicam building at 285 Madison Ave. to perform electrical work on Tuesday on the elevator where Hart died. 
 
 A maintenance worker enters 285 Madison Ave., where Young & Rubicam ad executive Suzanne Hart was crushed by an elevator a day earlier on Weds., Dec. 14, 2011. (DNAinfo/Mary Johnson) 
 
 They returned Wednesday morning and soon after they left, Hart stepped into the elevator, which shot upwards with its doors open, trapping her between the car and the lobby walls. 
 
 Hart, director of new business and experience at the powerhouse ad firm, was pronounced dead after the 10 a.m. incident, which unfolded while two people inside the elevator watched in horror. 
 
 A law enforcement source said the impact was powerful enough, along with the rescue effort, to do structural damage to the building, although the extent was not immediately known. 
 
 The Department of Buildings has closed the building, and is now checking the structure to make sure it's safe for office workers to return. 
 
 The agency is trying to determine whether Transel Elevator's work played a role in the accident and is conducting a review of the company's work at other buildings. 
 
 Transel did not immediately return calls seeking comment. 
 
 A law enforcement source said that the elevator that killed Hart was equipped with a safety mechanism that should have prevented the accident. But, for some reason, it failed. 
 
 “This is just a freak,” the source said. 
 
 Elevator accidents are rare in New York, but Hart’s death resonated across the city because she was killed doing something that millions do with little thought several times every day. 
 
 Hart’s family, meanwhile, continued grieving at the home she shared in Brooklyn Heights with her boyfriend of five years, Chris Dicksen. They emerged late Thursday morning, with worn eyes and shaken expressions, and got into a cab. 
 
 “I can’t process any of this,” Dicksen said. “Everybody's crushed. She was the bright spot of my life.” 
 
 Hart, a California native who moved to New York after graduating from Knox College in Illinois, joined Y&R in 2007 and was tasked with attracting new clients. 
 
 Y&R, which owns the 85-year-old building, ordered all of its employees across several sister agencies to work from home for the rest of the week. 
 
 One of Hart's co-workers, who stopped by the building Thursday morning, mourned the loss of an "amazing" woman. 
 
 "She was always happy, always smiling, always greeting people," said the colleague, who would not give his name. "She was just lovely. It’s a huge loss." 
 
 The building, near East 40th Street, has been cited dozens of times in the past years for problems with its 13 elevators, according to Department of Buildings records. The elevator that killed Hart was cited for a hazardous violation in 2003 that had been corrected, a DOB spokeswoman said. 
 
 The elevator was last inspected in June, but no safety concerns were found at the time, according to the agency. 
 
 Hart’s death raises another potential problem for Y&R, which is planning to move to a more modern building on Columbus Circle. Y&R is reportedly looking for a buyer for its current home, and the accident would make the building less desirable to potential buyers. 
 
 Y&R employees were told not to talk publicly about the mishap. CEO Peter Stringham issued a brief statement saying the firm was “deeply, deeply saddened” about Hart’s death. 
 
 "The focus at this moment is the well being of our employee’s family and our larger Y&R family.” ||||| Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times 
 
 Read the updated version of this article that appears in the newspaper. 
 
 A 41-year-old advertising executive at Y&R was crushed to death Wednesday by an elevator at the company’s Madison Avenue headquarters when the car lurched upward as she entered it, pinning her between the elevator floor and the top of the entranceway, the authorities said. 
 
 “She was stepping in and the elevator shot up,” a law enforcement official said. A man and a woman already in the elevator could only watch helplessly. 
 
 The woman, Suzanne Hart, a director of new business at Y&R, one of the world’s leading advertising agencies, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which happened around 10 a.m. at 285 Madison Avenue, a 28-story building at the corner of 40th Street. 
 
 Though fire officials initially believed the doors closed on Ms. Hart’s leg, they said Wednesday night that it appeared from surveillance video and witness accounts that the doors remained open as the elevator suddenly ascended. 
 
 “She is just kind of yanked up with it,” a fire official said. “Then, the elevator car becomes pinned between the first and second floor. It seems like her body is what stops the elevator’s movement.” 
 
 The official said that it took about an hour just to remove the two other passengers, who were not hurt but were taken to New York University Langone Medical Center. “I don’t think any physical injuries,” he said. “It is just what they saw, traumas.” 
 
 Meredith Hoffman for The New York Times 
 
 Ms. Hart’s body remained jammed in the elevator for considerably longer, stuck in what is called the blind shaft between the first and second floors. 
 
 Her body was finally wheeled out of the building shortly before 7 p.m. 
 
 At Ms. Hart’s home, a townhouse on State Street in Brooklyn Heights, her boyfriend, Chris Dickson, spoke briefly from his stoop Wednesday evening. 
 
 “She’s a beautiful person and I don’t have words for this,” he said. “I loved her.” 
 
 Ms. Hart’s father, Alex Hart, who lives in Florida, was beside himself with grief. “She was the most marvelous daughter imaginable,” he said by phone, weeping as he spoke. “No father could have ever been more proud of her.” 
 
 Chad Kawalec, a former director of client services at Y&R and friend of Ms. Hart’s, described the elevators in the 85-year-old building as creaky and balky. 
 
 “They weren’t the kind of elevators that you stuck your hand in to catch the doors,” he said, “Because they wouldn’t stop.” 
 
 A spokesman for the Department of Buildings, Tony Sclafani, said that the elevator that killed Ms. Hart was last inspected in June and that “no safety issues were found at that time and no conditions were found that would be related to this accident.” There have been many violations issued against the building’s 13 elevators in recent years, but all were for administrative or non-hazardous conditions, Mr. Sclafani said. 
 
 Last year, there were 53 elevator accidents in a city of 60,000 elevators, Mr. Sclafani said, three of them fatal. 
 
 The building is also home to several other agencies, including Kang & Lee, Blast Radius, BrandBuzz and Bravo. All of them, including Y&R, formerly known as Young & Rubicam, announced this month that they were moving out of the building. 
 
 Y&R’s C.E.O., David Sable, sent out a statement to employees. “I am deeply saddened to tell you that our beloved Suzanne Hart was killed,” it read in part. “Suzanne was, in fact, a member of my team and someone I worked closely with, truly respected and, quite simply, adored. Yesterday, I sat at lunch with her and I know this news will be shocking to all of you, as it is to me.” 
 
 At 285 Madison Avenue Wednesday afternoon, the mood was one of shock. A worker in the building said that none of the elevators were running. 
 
 Ms. Hart and Mr. Dickson moved to Brooklyn a few months ago from Carmine Street in Greenwich Village. Neighbors at her old building on Carmine Street, where Ms. Hart lived for almost 10 years, described her as an affable, straightforward person who seemed to have little to hide. 
 
 “A very, very nice gal,” said Jack Whelan, a 61 year old hairdresser who invited Ms. Hart up for his Christmas parties. 
 
 Andrea Meyer who lives on the fourth floor, said that she and Ms. Hart frequently joked and commiserated about their mutual desire to shed a few pounds. One day, Ms. Meyer saw Ms. Hart and commented on how great she looked. Ms. Hart beamed, and replied that she had finally lost the weight. 
 
 “She was always trying to lose ten pounds like me, and when she did, she was so excited,” Ms. Meyer said. A few years ago, Ms. Hart’s boyfriend moved in with her, and then about a year ago they began talking about their plan to move into an apartment in Brooklyn with a garden. 
 
 “That was exciting for her,” Ms. Meyer said, “They were really looking forward to having a backyard.” 
 
 Stuart Elliott, Cara Buckley and Tim Stelloh contributed reporting.
– The woman killed today in a horrific elevator accident in midtown Manhattan has been identified as a 41-year-old advertising executive with Young & Rubicam, reports DNA Info. After Suzanne Hart stepped into the elevator in her Madison Avenue building, the doors somehow shut on her foot or leg. (Her foot may have been caught in the gap between the elevator and lobby floor.) The elevator started going up with Hart trapped, and she was killed instantly as it got stuck between floors. Two others on the elevator could only watch. “She’s a beautiful person and I don’t have words for this,” her boyfriend tells the New York Times. “I loved her.” Click for more.