Injured MARTA escalator riders waited more than 30 minutes for EMS

Scores of people were on their way home from a Beyoncé concert when the escalator sped up and threw passengers to the ground, injuring at least 21, MARTA officials said this week. That’s nearly double the number of people reporting injuries than previously disclosed.

One of the women most seriously injured has said it took so long that friends considered calling an Uber to get her to Grady Hospital. A fellow concertgoer, who happened to be a nurse, took off her bandanna and used it to try and stop the woman’s bleeding. A man who broke his leg said he lost his temper while waiting on the hot platform, unable to feel his toes.

“I was angry about the time it took,” said Henry Dogan, who was injured alongside his wife and two daughters. “If this was any worse, we’d all be dead. If someone had a life-threatening injury that night, they would have died waiting for anyone from a first responder agency.”

MARTA has said there was “nothing wrong” with the escalator except that it was overloaded after a “stampede” of people boarded the moving stairs. Video shows a crowd on the escalator, but there are no signs of pushing or shoving, and riders have disputed reports of a stampede. Video footage does show what could be described as a stampede outside the station, away from the escalator.

Escalator experts who have reviewed the footage told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that what happened looks like a brake failure.

Immediately after the speeding escalator came to a sudden stop, riders on the platform and MARTA police officers began helping fallen people to their feet. The scene on the platform, which was already full of passengers, was chaotic.

Some of the injured left the station, including two men with leg pain who took the train to the Inman Park station. A MARTA police report says they waited there nearly three hours for Grady EMS, which “could not give a dispatch time.” The two then took a ride-hailing vehicle home and sought medical attention elsewhere.

Credit: MARTA

Credit: MARTA

For years, officials and residents have complained about long wait times from Grady EMS, and fire chiefs have said slow ambulance response times tie up their own crews, who are often the first to arrive on scene to help stabilize patients.

Although the latest incident wasn’t deadly, it raises new concerns about how quickly emergency help would arrive if a mass casualty happened downtown — especially if it occurred before, during or after a major event.

A MARTA police officer made the first request for a Grady ambulance at 12:18 a.m., within two minutes of the escalator malfunction, according to a dispatch log provided by the transit agency in response to a public records request. A minute later, the same officer reported that multiple people on the platform were injured.

The Atlanta Fire Rescue Department was the first medical unit to arrive, reaching the platform at 12:50 a.m., an AJC review of continuous surveillance footage shows. An Atlanta fire spokesman said the department’s crews responded roughly 13 minutes after receiving a request for dispatch from Grady.

It took longer for Grady ambulance units to arrive. A Grady EMS spokesperson said their first ambulance arrived on the scene at 1:02 a.m.

It’s unclear why medical staff didn’t arrive sooner.

Grady Emergency Medical Services had 45 EMTs and paramedics, and five ambulance units stationed near Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a spokesperson said in an email. The spokesperson said Grady’s ambulance service first received a call to respond to the station at 12:46 a.m., and arrived there 16 minutes later.

Credit: Ben Hendren

Credit: Ben Hendren

That account contradicts the dispatch log from MARTA, which shows an ambulance was first requested at 12:18 a.m. Grady EMS did not respond to questions asking whether they asked Atlanta Fire for assistance, or why the EMTs stationed nearby could not respond sooner. A spokesperson for the ambulance service said one unit was dispatched to Vine City for an unrelated incident at 12:20 a.m.

Atlanta City Council member Marci Collier Overstreet, who learned about the EMS delays from the AJC, said the city needs to look at its emergency protocols.

“When you’re gathering … 80,000 people in one area, accessibility during an emergency is crucial,” Overstreet said, adding that the emergency response needs to be studied as part of an investigation into what went wrong with the escalator. “There’s no reason for it to take a long time … for the emergency personnel to be able to access an emergency site.”

The MARTA police incident report identifies 13 victims, two more than have previously been disclosed. Those injured include a 5-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy. Another woman interviewed by the AJC who said she reported a leg injury is not included in the report. When asked about the additional injuries, MARTA spokesperson Stephany Fisher said a total of 21 people have now claimed injury.

Initial statements from the transit agency indicated the injuries included “cuts and bruises” and one broken ankle. It was actually a range of injuries: At least two had broken bones, and others reported back, leg, arm and ankle pain.

When EMTs arrived on the scene, they were ushered to Jaylen Black, who required surgery for a broken ankle and leg. She told the AJC her skin and tendons were torn away, exposing her bone. Black said EMTs told her they were tied up in traffic. Atlanta Fire and Grady officials did not respond to questions about the delay.

Black said “good Samaritans,” like the woman who tied a bandanna around her leg, stepped up while she and other injured riders waited for EMTs. Black, who talked with the AJC the day after the incident from her hospital bed, said she viewed the slow response as a systemic failure, not the fault of any individual units.

“They are overworked, understaffed and overwhelmed,” Black said. “By the time they arrived, we completely outnumbered them.”

Credit: Ben Hendren

Credit: Ben Hendren

Dogan was the most injured in his family. He said when the escalator stopped, people were thrown about and several landed on his leg. Dogan heard a loud pop.

Dogan said he fell again trying to get up.

“I couldn’t even feel my toes,” he said. “My whole leg was numb. So I rolled out of the way.”

He said medics told him they couldn’t move people off the hot ground because they didn’t have stretchers.

Doctors have told him he broke a bone in his leg and will likely require surgery. Dogan said he has been upset with MARTA’s handling of the situation, from calling it a stampede to reporting that most of those injured had cuts and bruises.

No one at the agency has apologized or checked in except to tell him how to file a claim, Dogan said. He said he wants them to know about his wife’s foot, which swelled up like a balloon the next day. His daughters both bruised their legs but are struggling most mentally, and his 13-year-old daughter has had nightmares, he said.

“It’s not really about a claim,” he said. “You’re not going to ask me how my family is doing?”