11 Children Hospitalized After Escalator Malfunction at Gershwin Theatre Before 'Wicked'
Wednesday night was supposed to be a fun night out. Instead, a group of kids ended up in the hospital before the show even started.
An escalator inside the Gershwin Theatre — the Broadway home of Wicked — abruptly stopped around 5:12 p.m. on May 13. Everyone on it lurched forward. Eleven children and one adult fell and were taken to local hospitals. All of them are stable with minor injuries.
Police sources think a child's shoelace got caught in the escalator and triggered the sudden stop. That's it. A shoelace. In a crowded lobby full of excited kids heading to see one of the most popular shows on Broadway right now — especially since the 2024 film brought in a wave of younger audiences — and one caught lace brought the whole thing to a halt.
Escalator Injuries Are More Common Than You'd Think
Most people step onto an escalator without giving it a second thought. That's kind of the problem.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates around 10,000 escalator-related injuries result in emergency room visits in the United States every year. Some studies put the annual injury figure closer to 17,000 when you include all incidents. Falls account for about 75% of those injuries. Entrapment — clothing, shoes, shoelaces getting caught in the mechanism — makes up most of the rest.
Kids under five and adults over 65 are the most vulnerable groups. The shoelace scenario that appears to have triggered Wednesday's incident isn't unusual either. Studies have found that about half of all caught-between injuries on escalators involve children, most often when a hand, shoe, or dangling shoelace gets pulled into the mechanism and causes the machine to abruptly stop. That sudden jolt is what sends everyone standing on it lurching forward — which is exactly what happened at the Gershwin.
Sudden stops are a well-documented hazard. In 2021 a boy at the Staten Island Mall had his foot trapped when an escalator abruptly stopped — bystanders had to pry the wall back with a metal rod to free him. One of the more dramatic examples happened at Boston's Back Bay Station when an escalator suddenly reversed direction at speed, sending people tumbling backward and injuring nine. Two families sued the state transportation authority and the maintenance company. A malfunction at a hockey game resulted in 13 injuries in a similar sudden-stop scenario.
Escalators actually cause about 15 times more injuries than elevators do — despite there being far fewer of them. They carry roughly 10,000 riders a day on average and most of the time nothing goes wrong. But when something does it tends to happen fast, in a crowd, with no warning.
A theater lobby full of excited kids heading to see a show is about as high-traffic and distracted as an escalator environment gets.
The Show Must Go On
The show went on that night as scheduled. No performances have been canceled.
The NYPD and the New York City Department of Buildings are both investigating.
The Gershwin has been Wicked's home since the show opened in 2003. It's a massive theater — close to 1,900 seats — and on any given Wednesday before curtain the lobby is packed. Twelve people falling forward on a stopped escalator in that environment is the kind of thing that could have been a lot worse.
Everyone is okay. But it was not the night anyone had planned.
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