ATLANTA — An Atlanta City Council member is calling for a full investigation into a escalator malfunction at a MARTA station after Beyoncé‘s concert Monday night.
The chaos at the Vine City station started with someone screaming at the top of the escalator. It caused a chain reaction of people rushing to get off, but the escalator sped up, then suddenly stopped.
Nine people were hurt in the stampede. Jessica Barrett was one of the the concertgoers on the escalator.
“All of us were basically thrown off the escalator on top of other people,” Barrett told Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes.
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MARTA says it is investigating the incident. Atlanta City Councilmember Marci Collier Overstreet said she supports MARTA’s investigation, but urges it to be fully transparent and public and hold people accountable.
“This incident was a near‑catastrophe. Dozens could have been seriously hurt—or worse,” Overstreet said. “We don’t know the names of those hurt, but I hope that at the least MARTA is checking in on these people. One thing I do know: our city must understand exactly what went wrong to ensure this never happens again.”
Overstreet said she has questions over the escalator’s inspection and maintenance history, what exactly caused the escalator to speed up and stop, and if there were adequate crowd control measures.
She is also asking about a system-wide risk analysis for escalators at other MARTA stations.
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