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Woman trapped, dies on escalator at State Street T stop
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Heart attack or not the
Heart attack or not the State escalators are constantly broken or being serviced. I believe it was explained in the Globe a few years ago that MBTA had true-to-form locked itself into a long term contract with a company who did sub-par work.
Not to be crass but I would be fascinated to see what the other people around her did, you half expect somebody to step over her.
She should have worn
her seat belt.
She was surrounded by MI-5 and CIA who alternately tortured and revived her with CPR. Rendition was pointless after she passed.
ah, Kone
I believe it was explained in the Globe a few years ago that MBTA had true-to-form locked itself into a long term contract with a company who did sub-par work.
That would be Kone. Not only was Kone the lowest bidder on the maintenance contract, but if I remember that article correctly, Kone's bid was half the next highest bid.
Anybody else got details?
Hmm
Pardon my ignorance, but doesn't the government have to take the lowest bidder for a project?
Either way, the escelators at south station are broken at least once a month.
Lowest Bidder, but they have to perform
The government doesn't have to take the lowest bidder if there is reason to believe the job is so severely under bid that the contractor will not be able to complete the scope of work.
That said, being the lowest bidder does not release you from the contract obligations. Just because you don't want to get paid as much as the next guy, doesn't mean you get to do less work or perform to specifications in the contract.
An oversight problem, as usual.
There's a lot of wiggle room
I was involved in a "lowest bidder" situation once and believe that offering a contract to the lowest bidder can be a very bad way of doing things.
The lowest bidder often has very little or no experience in the project. If/When they do get the contract, then they start hiring people and lining up subcontractors. Specs are often so vague that there is a lot of "interpretation", i.e. shortcuts. There is often very little oversight on the projects (can you say Big Dig?), and more shortcuts are taken. Shoddy work by the low bidder skates by because it's up to spec - maybe.
Ideally, you would like to have a committee chose a contractor based on reputation and price. That just opens it up to offering contracts to brothers, cousins, etc. No easy answer.
Off?
Are they broken, or just off? My sole experience with nonworking escalators at South Station was immediately after a short power outage. They were all off. I told the nearest T worker before getting on the Silver Line that they were all off, and she said, "Oh, they'll come back on in a minute." Um, no, you have to go turn them back on. I'm sure everyone with luggage would appreciate that.
Lately
Broken. The one that goes from the Red Line directly up (only up) from Red Line outbound and skips the silver line platform was out for 2 weeks with the yellow barriers up. And the one that goes up to the commuter rail station from downstairs always seems to be breaking.
State Police investigating
This just in from the Suffolk County DA's office:
Okay ...
So ... does a certain Uhub commenter on an earlier thread now acknowledge that escalator accidents can kill?
On the way to the eye doctor
Globe story.