Electric Scooter v.s Escalator (Boston MBTA)

[ChristopherJ]

Only in America!

Don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[youtube]i0WmZRVsBSM[/youtube]

MBTA warns: Wheelchair, escalator mix will flip you out

Escalators and motorized wheelchairs just don’t mix, a lesson a woman learned the hard way in South Boston last Friday.

The MBTA yesterday released a video showing the 56-year-old woman being launched backwards and flipping over several times as she attempted to ride her scooter up a moving escalator at Broadway Station on Friday morning.

“It was released to demonstrate the consequences of ignoring the rules pertaining to escalators,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said of the transit authority’s decision to post security camera footage on YouTube. “Strollers, scooters and wheelchairs are prohibited. An elevator is about fifty feet from this escalator at Broadway Station.”

The woman, whom the T did not identify, did not appear to be seriously injured and declined medical attention, Pesaturo said.

The video shows the woman ride up to the base of the escalator behind a tourist and his two sons, reaching out to grab its hand rail with her left hand. She suddenly starts rising upward — for a few moments. But then disaster strikes and she is shot backward, as if bucked from a bronco.

“The chair flips over, and an alert MBTA bus operator pushed the escalator’s emergency stop button,” Pesaturo said, noting that other bystanders raced to her aid, including the tourist who ran down the upward moving escalator. “After her tumble, the woman stands up and walks down the escalator.”

“Seemingly embarrassed, she said very little to T personnel,” he added.

Pesaturo said there were no defects with the elevator.

 

[trentside]

How ridiculous - candidate for a Darwin Award?

I notice she also appears to be perfectly capable of walking away from the scene, which begs the questions how necessary is the mobility scooter in the first place?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Praise the Almighty Lord, she can walk!

How ridiculous - candidate for a Darwin Award?

You need to die in the process to be a candidate for a Darwin.

 

[Crossover]

What an idiot trying to take that up the escalator!

Just to look at it from a different viewpoint on the walking away, quite a few people who have wheelchairs and such can walk for a short distance but can't stand/walk for long periods of time, so this could be why she has it. Doesn't excuse this stunt though!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

You need to die in the process to be a candidate for a Darwin.

She would still rate for an honourable mention wouldn't she?

 

[LE Greys]

I know I shouldn't laugh really, she might have been injured if it had been slightly different, but laugh I did I'm afraid.

 

[142094]

One of the most dangerous places in a station is usually the stairs or escalators - normally due to the fact that people don't use them correctly, are elderly/infirm, or under the influence.

 

[LexyBoy]

Nothing wrong with laughing at the terminally stupid, one day they might learn not to do things that are obviously going to end badly.

One of the most dangerous places in a station is usually the stairs or escalators - normally due to the fact that people don't use them correctly, are elderly/infirm, or under the influence.

Indeed, the escalators at Reading are a noted accident blackspot, as certain TMs are inordinately fond of telling us.

 

[tigerroar]

Some people can use wheelchairs on escalators.

Some can't

 

[gordonthemoron]

a friend took his mother (who was in a wheelchair) down an escalator in Munich (facing forward), needless to say she fell out

 

[MCW]

ok its nasty to laugh but I did. I'm so going to hell.

but seriously was she retarded and in a wheelchair? man what a stupid thing to do....

(before anyone says anything I have a mental disability)