TRIP DOWN THE UP ESCALATOR

24 students hurt in Manhattan theater when kid's pants get snagged and teacher hits the stop button

The Loews Theatres on Broadway and 68th Street in Manhattan, where more than 20 were injured after an elevator mishap.
(Newsday Photo/ J. Conrad Williams Jr.)

BY DARYL KHAN
STAFF WRITER
Staff writer Deborah S. Morris and freelancer Dan Morrison contributed to this story.

January 14, 2005

Schoolchildren on a field trip to a Manhattan movie theater yesterday were knocked to the bottom of an escalator in a terrifying pileup after a teacher pressed the emergency stop button because a student's pants snagged on a protruding screw, officials said.

"One of them fell, and then another one, and then they all started falling like a bunch of dominoes," a fire official said of the incident at the Loews Lincoln Square and Imax Theater.

According to fire and building officials, 10 people were taken to New York Weill Cornell Medical Center and 14 others were treated at the scene.

Most of the injuries were minor scrapes and bruises. One person suffered a fracture and another needed stitches. The fall occurred sometime between 10:30 and 11 a.m.

Linda Mustafa, 12, a student from PS 83 in the Bronx, ended up beneath other children on a landing at the bottom of the 40-foot up escalator. She said just before the escalator jerked to a stop, she saw children piling up behind a student who was stuck near the top steps.

"They were yelling, 'Go back! Go back!' and everybody started falling," she said.

Mustafa was among 250 students from a mix of public and private schools who had just arrived at the theater to see "The Polar Express," an animated holiday movie.

Mark Bernard, 13, a seventh-grader at St. Jerome's School in East Flatbush, said he was on the landing separating the two sections of the up escalator when he saw the children jammed at the top.

"All of the sudden, it got too big," he said. "Once the escalator stopped, it was total chaos. That's when everything started to happen. There was lots of screaming and crying for help."

The Buildings Department issued a stop-use order on the escalator until it completes an investigation, and it issued a violation for failure to maintain the escalator. Department officials believe the student's pants caught on a quarter-inch section of a screw that holds a black protective brush, called a skirt, in place. The skirt prevents material from falling into the escalator's mechanism.

As part of the investigation, buildings employees will inspect the other 18 escalators at the theater. Jennifer Givner, a Buildings Department spokeswoman, said inspectors
 issued a violation during an inspection Sept. 7 because an escalator's brakes were not adjusted properly. Investigators will try to determine whether the earlier violation is related to yesterday's incident.

Investigators also are looking into complaints that once the emergency stop button was pushed, the escalator continued to travel for longer than the code allows.

A statement released by Loews said: "We are taking this incident very seriously."

Staff writer Deborah S. Morris and freelancer Dan Morrison contributed to this story.


 

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