Riders dispute ‘stampede’ MARTA officials say caused escalator malfunction

Black, the woman most seriously injured in an incident that sent seven people to the hospital and hurt at least four others, spoke to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday from Grady Hospital, where she was recuperating. She said she’s tried extending “as much grace as possible” but believes MARTA could have taken more action to keep riders safe.

“It was so preventable,” Black said.

Two other riders interviewed by the AJC also objected to the characterization of the incident as a “stampede,” though one person said the description felt apt. But dozens of others who said they were part of the crowd disputed use of the term in social media posts.

For many large events, including the Beyoncé concerts, MARTA deploys additional staff to limit crowds from building up and to keep people moving quickly. But the incident at the Vine City station is the latest in a string of incidents in which MARTA has been criticized for failing to do so, including the Peachtree Road Race earlier this month and after pop star Shakira’s concert last month.

MARTA officials did not answer questions Wednesday about the nature of the incident, or criticisms of the agency’s preparedness for the crowd size. A spokesperson referred questions about the escalator to the manufacturer, which did not immediately respond to questions.

“The entire incident is under investigation,” MARTA spokesperson Stephany Fisher said.

The Vine City escalator malfunctioned just after midnight on the fourth and final night of Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” tour stop in Atlanta. MARTA officials said Tuesday the issue started when someone began screaming and running, “causing a stampede on the escalator that caused it to temporarily speed up and then stop suddenly.” Witnesses told authorities a woman was “possibly startled by an insect.”

Riders told the AJC the escalator was operating normally and then sped up, causing people to lose their balance and fall, creating a pile of bodies at the bottom of the escalator.

Video obtained by the AJC from a MARTA passenger on the platform shows the escalator moving rapidly as riders clung to the handrails. The escalator emptied onto the platform, which at Vine City is in the middle with train tracks on either side. It was crowded, with people standing shoulder-to-shoulder.

When the escalator came to an abrupt stop, many of those on the platform immediately rushed to help people to their feet. One woman was heard shouting out, “Are y’all OK?” Another yelled, “get the baby.” A group of people worked together to help an injured woman at the base of the escalator get up, with someone telling her to “grab a hand, we got you.”

Black was also trapped at the bottom of the escalator, pinned beneath others. She said she was worried she would suffocate before getting out from under the people who had fallen on her.

People helped her stand and Black said was able to hobble to a bench. It was only then she realized how badly she was injured.

“I looked at my leg and said, ‘Is that my bone?’” Black recalled.

A fellow concertgoer, a nurse, took off her bandanna and tied it around Black’s leg to stop the bleeding, she said.

It took a long time for EMTs to arrive, Black said. At one point, she said her friends began debating whether they should call an Uber and take her to the hospital themselves.

Another video, taken at 12:51 a.m. by a different person and shared with the AJC, shows EMTs on the scene. The platform had mostly cleared except of those injured. One woman was vomiting into a trash can while others walked around asking if anyone had water to give her. Several other people were laying on the platform. EMTs were assisting others, including Black, who was laying on a bench with her head in a friend’s lap.

She said the EMTs told her traffic prevented them from arriving sooner. The ambulance dropped her and another injured woman at Grady around 2 a.m., Black said.

MARTA initially reported nine people were injured, then confirmed an additional two after the AJC asked about people who requested medical attention at other stations after leaving Vine City.

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Black, a native Atlantan and Decatur resident, said the problem Monday night wasn’t the crowd, which she described as patient and orderly. Black put the blame on MARTA, saying the transit agency failed on multiple levels.

She said she didn’t see anyone directing crowds at the Vine City station, which is connected to Mercedes-Benz Stadium by a pedestrian bridge over Northside Drive.

Other riders also told the AJC they didn’t see MARTA staff at the station but did see MARTA police. In one of the videos, MARTA police are visible assisting on the platform.

If the escalator had capacity limitations, staff should have limited how many people could get on, Black said. MARTA and city officials should ensure EMTs have better access to the station during an emergency.

Credit: Ben Hendren

Credit: Ben Hendren

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize ‘I could have been better prepared for this,’” she said, referring to MARTA. “Because if it just took a woman screaming because of a bug, y’all clearly didn’t have your system set up the way it needed to be.”

Marcus Armistead, a concertgoer who witnessed the escalator malfunction from the platform, also expressed concern over crowd control effort.

Some of the fare gates were not working properly and it created a jam with people unsuccessfully swiping their Breeze cards, he said. One gate was open and Armistead said someone, possibly a MARTA employee, was ushering people through it more quickly.

On the platform, it was so crowded that when people began tumbling down, it was hard to move out of the way, Armistead said. He said he was worried someone would get pushed on the tracks by accident.

“It was definitely not a pretty process at all,” he said. “I kind of feel like shame on MARTA, the way it was handled, because the way it was presented ... was MARTA being the safest and fastest, most efficient, way to the concert. They didn’t feel prepared.”

While Black and others said they didn’t experience a “stampede,” as MARTA officials reported, one woman backed up the use of that word.

“I definitely would call it a stampede, because it did feel like that,” said Amber Anderson, a South Carolina resident whose leg was injured on the escalator.

Of all the witnesses the AJC spoke with, Anderson was the only person close enough to hear the scream that MARTA officials said started the chaos. Others reported hearing screaming only after the escalator malfunctioned.

Black said this incident should raise real concerns about MARTA’s capacity for the World Cup games next summer, where crowds are expected to exceed that of the Beyoncé concerts. But she said it’s also an indication of the day-to-day problems the system faces.

“This is the culmination of what it looks like to be a failed business,” she said.

Staff writer Rosana Hughes contributed to this report.