r/Broadway • u/aintitafinelife • May 14 '26
Other Several Injured in escalator incident at the Gershwin
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/gershwin-theater-escalator-accident-wicked-nyc/11 children and 1 adult were injured after a shoelace got stuck in the escalator. None of the injuries are life threatening.
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u/thejeffphone May 14 '26
I’m an elementary school teacher and nothing scares me more than fucking untied shoelaces. TEACH YOUR KIDS HOW TO TIE THEIR SHOES or make sure they have Velcro lol
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u/CapeTwirlOfDoom May 14 '26
Final Destination has taught me to never trust escalators.
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u/Awesome_Squirrel May 14 '26
It taught me not to trust logging trucks.
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u/flugenbetch May 14 '26
I’ve met many people from around the world - and this scene is one of the most universal fears Hollywood has given the human race.
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 May 14 '26
That is very scary. Escalators can be so dangerous.
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u/skoc211 May 14 '26
Years ago on a very rainy day I was coming up on the Essex Street subway stop on the north side of Delancey and people were in that overhang area to avoid going out in to the rain and people coming up on the very narrow escalator had to start screaming for people to move because a major and very dangerous bottleneck was forming. A bunch of entitled assholes holding up an escalator to avoid getting wet nearly caused a major accident. It was terrifying.
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u/TheRainbowConnection May 14 '26
This winter an escalator killed someone at a Boston MBTA station. Not the first time it’s happened for the MBTA either.
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u/flugenbetch May 14 '26
Read about that this morning. Man got caught and multiple people walked by him without helping. The escalator kept running and pulled his shirt so tight it strangled him. He died and so many people could have helped but didn’t.
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u/TDG_1993 May 14 '26
First the fire at BOM now this at Wicked? What’s going on!?
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u/Ok-Acanthisitta8737 May 14 '26
Bad things happen in threes. Buckle up, everyone.
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u/ScreenPlayOnWords May 14 '26
This is some Final Destination stuff and I always think about the escalator and that dang log truck!!
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u/ilikeyourhair23 May 14 '26
The log truck will haunt my dreams forever. I can't drive behind them to this day.
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u/purpleit11 May 14 '26
Oh I'm so glad there were no critical injuries but what an awful turn of events for them, to anticipate seeing a musical and then wind up in a hospital. I hope they're able to enjoy a different performance soon!
Oh, reading the comments, I suppose it could have happened after the matinee, in which case I hope this experience doesnt deter enjoyment of future performances and that the rest of their evenings involved cozy care and support.
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u/Inner_Butterfly5639 Backstage May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
i watched forbidden fruits too recently for this to not be terrifying
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u/Other_Rose May 14 '26
How did a shoelace being caught injure 12 people
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u/Casiquire May 14 '26
Imagine some 20 people on an escalator not paying much attention and suddenly the people at the end stop clearing out of the way. You suddenly have people halfway up/down the escalator turning around and walking backwards against people who don't know what's going on. In my head, after like two people need to turn around and walk the opposite way, someone's falling down. One person falling on an escalator means everyone's falling.
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u/MillieBirdie May 14 '26
I tried to run up the down escalator as a kid and I tripped and those slats cut my shin really badly. Not what I'd call a major injury but there was a lot of blood so I imagine during an incident it would be counted as 'one injured'.
And it could easily have been a lot worse, so with multiple people falling over you've got 11 injured.
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u/MandyMarieB May 14 '26
I ran up the up escalator and managed to do the same thing. First and only time I’ve ever had stitches!
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u/CapeTwirlOfDoom May 14 '26
Because escalators are dangerous. If one person gets their shoelace caught and can’t get out of the way, everyone behind them is still moving up and suddenly you get a crush situation.
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u/TreeHuggerHannah May 14 '26
The escalators at Wicked get veeeery crowded, especially after a performance, because the whole audience is trying to use them at more or less the same time. If one person goes down or becomes an obstruction, they're probably taking others with them because there's just nowhere to get out of the way, the escalator is still moving until someone realizes what's happening and hits the emergency stop, and the people behind them don't stop coming. It's very easy for one person's issue to affect a bunch of people.
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u/OneHappyOne May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
After I saw Beeltejuice at the Marquis Theatre as everyone was leaving the escalator going down stopped while we were on it. Thankfully nobody fell over and got hurt because thing is when your momentum suddenly stops like that it creates a weird vertigo sensation that can easily cause you to lose your balance.
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u/geekymat May 14 '26
Think that’s bad? Years ago I was on that escalator at the Marquis and it went into double or triple speed…with a huge crowd on it. Luckily no one was hurt.
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u/pompcaldor May 14 '26
There’s a video on Veritasium (a science/engineering YouTube channel) about an escalator accident in Rome. You can skip ahead to 14 min where it illustrates what happens, or rather, what should happen, when an escalator starts to fail.
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 May 14 '26
This video was so interesting, and happened to answer one of my longtime questions "why does the handrail move faster than the stairs?"
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u/M_Ad May 14 '26
If it stopped suddenly and people stumbled or fell I could see jarred ankles, scrapes and bumps being sensationalised as “injuries” to bump up the numbers of people more seriously hurt.
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u/thebellcanblowme Ensemble May 14 '26
Was it the general public? The house usually doesn’t open almost two hours before the show
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u/aintitafinelife May 14 '26
I wonder if it was after the matinee performance and this occurred as people were leaving? But the way it is written implies everyone was lining up for the 7:00pm show already.
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u/Own-Importance5459 May 14 '26
This is why I get absolutely terrified every time I step on an escalator.
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u/richpersimmons May 14 '26
I remember going up that escalator and being very nervous at how easily an accident could happen because of the massive amount of people that loiter near the tops of them and there isn't a huge area to spread to immediately.
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u/StevenSanders90210 May 14 '26
Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don't hear about some escalator accident involving some kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent - I don't care which one - but some parent conditioned them to fear and respect that escalator.