As the elevator descended, the door swung out and caught the side of the mine shaft, the guide fell out, was dragged and ended up landing on top of one of the tourists as the elevator continued its descent, investigators determined.
A tour guide killed at a former Colorado gold mine last year fell out of a crowded elevator taking tourists below ground after apparently not latching its door closed, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
Surveillance video showed that in the minutes prior to his death, Weier loaded the group of tourists onto the lower level of a double-decker, cage-like elevator for a 1,000-foot descent into the mine.
The harrowing account of the October accident that killed Patrick Weier, 46, at the Mollie Kathleen Mine in the mountains near Colorado Springs was included in an investigative report obtained by AP in response to a public records request.
At first he was trapped between the shaft wall and the still-moving elevator and ultimately fell into the top elevator car.
