Workers Injured In Building Mishap

OCEAN CITY - Three workers were injured in an accident at a downtown hotel this week when an interior elevator, or 'dumb-waiter,' in which they were riding rapidly plunged three stories to the ground floor.

Around 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Ocean City Fire Department units were dispatched to the Lankford Hotel on the Boardwalk at 8^th Street for a reported accident. The investigation revealed three workers, whose names have not been released, had fallen three stories when a piece of equipment had malfunctioned. Ocean City Fire Department Public Information Officer Steve Price said yesterday the workers were in the makeshift elevator when the accident occurred, not outside working on scaffolding as was initially believed.

'Our guys went there thinking it was a scaffolding accident, but that wasn't the case,' he said. 'These three workers had gotten into what I can only describe as a dumb-waiter inside the hotel. They were coming down from the third floor when it dropped to a laundry room below.'

One of the injured workers was flown to Shock Trauma in Baltimore via Maryland State Police helicopter. Ocean City Fire Department paramedics transported the other two to PRMC in Salisbury. The nature or severity of their injuries is not known.