Busted Subway Escalator adds the shock of panic to the Monday morning commute: Gothamist



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deathscalator022519.jpeg "src =" http://gothamist.com/attachments/nyc_joffenhartz/deathscalator022519.jpeg "width =" 640 "height =" 434 "/> <br /> <i>    Soon in a subway station near you: The Deathscalator (via Lyana Fernandez)</i></div>
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<p>A few days after the fall of a 7-train piece that was impaled in a moving car in Woodside, Queens, the MTA was bringing its energy to a bizarre accident narrowly avoided in an all-out new week. On Monday morning, a faulty escalator from 5th Avenue and 53rd Street stopped, shredding and buckling the steel steps of the machine as terrorized commuters collapsed. </p>
<p>Lyana Fernandez, a suburban employee who takes the A train from Inwood, said she heard a "resounding sound" when she climbed the escalator from the train station just before 9am this morning. "The machines are somehow down and collapsed on themselves," she told Gothamist. "It looked like a truck was crashing against a wall, I heard people screaming, some people stumbled on it, and miraculously no one seemed to be hurt."</p>
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Still shaking. I heard a loud noise as I climbed the escalator to 5thAv / 53rd St and saw it right in front of me. You may have shredded someone's foot. @MTA @NYCTSubway you play with people's safety! @Gothamist pic.twitter.com/15YWne67ns

– lolitapop9 (@ lolitapop9) February 25, 2019

Fernandez managed to capture a photo of the gnarled inner workings of the escalator, generating yuck through Twitter. State Senator Brad Hoylman called it's "incredibly dangerous and scary". Other conscientiously update their worst list of subway fears.

In a statement, MTA spokesman Shams Tarek told Gothamist: "We have staff on hand to repair this escalator and help direct customers to another escalator and stairs. a very rare and disturbing thing to see, we are happy that there are injuries, and a full investigation is underway ".

Troubling indeed. Especially when you realize that this morning's photo looks a bit like an image taken as a result of the "apocalyptic" collapse of a mechanical escalator in Rome in October, which has screened dozens of football fans and caused 24 injuries. The video of this scene is heartbreaking, as is the more abstract but still very real perspective of our city's infrastructure that goes down to the deteriorating levels of Italy.

Of course, escalators and lifts broke down throughout the subway were a persistent achilles heel for our own transport authority. A recent study by the controller revealed that about 80% of the escalators and elevators of the MTA are not assigned to scheduled preventive maintenance service and that the authority does not check if any defects detected in its lifts and escalators are corrected.

The station has no lift and, according to Fernandez, the escalator adjacent to it was under construction until last weekend. "I'm just going to take the stairs from now on," she told us.

On Wednesday, members of the MTA's board of directors are expected to rule on a proposal to increase the basic fare from $ 2.75 to $ 3 per trip. If successful, Access-a-Ride users – those who often do not have the ability to climb stairs – could see their fare increase 9.1% per trip, more than double that it would be for commuters who use MetroCard.

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