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The people-eating escalator at Haymarket
By adamg on Mon, 06/21/2010 - 10:25am
Shawnna Imani reports that after getting dumped out of one Orange Line train taken out of service at Ruggles, she finally got to Haymarket and was on her way up the escalator when it just stopped, throwing her and others down and giving her a set of fresh puncture wounds on her arm (only click if you want to see somebody's arm with bits of skin missing). She adds that a T employee apologized and gave her a six-month CharlieCard.
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Comments
escalators!
i fell on the Aquarium escalator a couple years ago. Got the teeth of the stair right into my knees. gushed blood! Caused trauma and i couldnt walk for a good couple weeks. Also it took a good two years before i could run again. i should have stayed in the T and demanded medical attention. Instead i hobbled to the doctors. Next time im suing as this person should do.
Why She Shouldn't Sue (necessarily)
It is always interesting to me that people's first reaction to any personal injury is "who should I sue". I find it interesting because its only most people's reaction in this country. Really, you are only justified in bringing a lawsuit: (a) if you really believe that the person who owns the place you were injured should have fixed something but chose not to AND (b) you incur medical bills for treatment that the owner of the place you were injured won't pay (c) you are so severely injured that you are unable to work for a period of time, or (d) you are so severely injured that your life is permenantly changed for the worse. If none of these apply, most people in the rest of the world just chaulk the injury up to "these things happen" and get on with their lives. The only reason we seem not to is people's misperception of the idea of negligence. Whereas negligence is really designed to compensate where a property owner didn't fix something they should have, we in this country interpret it to mean that whever someone is injured someone else should compensate them to "set things right". There are many reasons this is a bad thing: Needlessly increased insurance premiums on everything from healthcare to cars (that all of us end up paying), absurd anti-risk policies ("caution: the coffey you are about to drink is hot"), and just plain encouraging people to take things out on others. In the case of the last poster who couldn't run for a year, I think it would be fair to say that a suit might have been appropriate (if the T wouldn't compensate otherwise). In the case of the original poster, I'm not so sure, a free T pass for 4 months sounds pretty fair.
Looked at the rest of her postings
I think folks should take a look and come to their own conclusions about her judgment.
Doesn't mean she deserves to get hurt on the T's escalators, but I just wonder why what she says matters???
Do you have a point here?
An anonymous comment that attacks somebody for typical twitterings that have nothing to do with the situation being reported. Truly brave.
Poor darling - was somebody getting more attention than you?
wow
Woke up on the wrong side of bed much?? That person's comment was pretty far off from "attacking" anyone. They were most likely referring to the post where she is making fun of an older woman on the bus, which really wasn't in the best taste - but whatever its her twitter page.
The response to her post certainly didn't warrant your over dramatic/pretty rude and sarcastic retort...If you disagree with what someone says state it respectfully or else you are hardly above the person you criticize.
Hilarious. It's almost like
Hilarious. It's almost like you created a reply only suitable for what you just wrote.
That's because they don't teach humor at Tufts
or irony. Right now Swirrly is reading your comment, and this one, and getting neither.
I just don't want to give
I just don't want to give Adam my email address - he'll probably sell it to make money.
Poor Swirly...spends all her time on shit blogs trying to get attention. Go ride your bike again.
You must have one helluva valuable e-mail address
Never sold or leased e-mail addresses, never will.
Huh?
Did you just get here? From planet Head Injury?
Did you not? Know?
That. Timing? Is the? Key to? Comedy?
Bad ways to start a sentence
Whenever you write a sentences that starts: "Doesn't mean she deserves to get hurt on the T's escalators, but..." you might want to reconsider your entire argument. What IS your point, then? That it simply doesn't matter when young black women are badly injured by a public transit authority? Well, that's much more acceptable. Especially since you took care not to specify why you were dismissing her bodily harm as insignificant. You counted on people to connect the dots for themselves. Or maybe you'd care to elaborate. Maybe you don't really care about her ethnicity, its just her youth that makes her lacerations meaningless. By all means, define why it is that harm coming to this individual is so immune from criticism.
Last I checked, a failure of MBTA equipment resulting in an bodily injury seems very much appropriate for UHub. Not sure why the social acceptability of the victim matters at all. She was still tossed around by a broken escalator to the point of requiring medical care.
Yep
I don't see Adam repeating everything this woman tweets - just the part about her being tossed and injured. That's news because it could happen to anyone. The rest is just "go look at what a twit she is" and "wahhh, she's getting attention and I don't think she's worth it", and, well, so what. That's irrelevant.