Not all subway stations are accessible by elevator—although they should be—but there are three stations that can only be accessed by elevator. One such location is Clark Street in Brooklyn. With only three elevators to get pedestrians to the station, and bring straphangers to the sidewalk, one of the hot and overpacked shafts broke down today.
This morning, 13 commuters were trapped in the elevator for nearly an hour, some of them being elderly passengers! One of the commuters, Talia Kovacs, told Gothamist today that “It was about seven minutes of just crashes above us. No debris actually fell into the elevator but lots of loud crash-bangs, and what sounded like debris falling on us. Many men and women were crying and scared.”
She continued to explain how the group was stuck for a while, as it was nearly fifty minutes after they’d called for help that the fire department arrived, with no updates until their eventual arrival. Once there, the FDNY had the passengers climb up two ladders, which took another twenty minutes.
Needless to say, this would’ve been exponentially worse had it happened during rush hour and not at 10 a.m., when even more people would be crammed into the elevator in hopes of catching the next subway. Since there is no option for stairs currently, the temperamental elevators are certainly less than ideal.
https://twitter.com/taliakovacs/status/1046773249168822273
https://twitter.com/taliakovacs/status/1046777180590665728