Glen Park BART stairs more dangerous than the escalators?

Photo by Wiltastic

Rider Beth has another observation about the Glen Park BART station. She wonders whether the escalator’s being shut down for six months led to more serious accidents on the stairs. Read on.

The Glen Park BART station down escalator reopened last week to little fanfare. You can see some diaries on this repairwork at these two posts: Woe Unto Glen Park BART Riders and Further Glen Park BART Woes. The escalator was out of commission for about six months, from sometime in February until late August.

During that time, lots of passengers were forced to use the very long stone staircase to get down to the platform (or use the elevator). At least once I stumbled on the stairs, and I know other people have had similar mishaps. Once, when we were heading out, my partner Devin and I saw that the stairs were blocked off because someone had taken a serious fall on them and paramedics were attending to him/her.

That made me wonder whether the escalator’s breakdown had led to many more serious accidents on the stairs, since so many more people were using them. So, I requested documents, first from the SF Fire Department (since their paramedics handle such incidents) and then from the SF Department of Emergency Management, who had the records from the 911 calls.

In short, no more people suffered serious injuries on the stairs — serious enough to call an ambulance, anyway — between February and mid-August, 2011 when compared to the prior year.

On June 9, 2011, a 67-year-old woman fell on the stairs and broke her ankle or left lower leg (the report mentions both). The only other report of a fall of any kind in the Glen Park BART station came on June 30, when a woman fell onto the tracks and a train rolled over her, causing no injuries.

Rewind one year. On April 16, 2010, someone fell down the stairs and broke his or her leg. Ironically, three days earlier, on April 13, an elderly patron fell down the escalator and required paramedic evaluation for unknown injuries.

It’s possible more people suffered really minor stumbles and falls, but fortunately, it looks like this extended escalator outage didn’t lead to any more serious injuries than you’d see in a typical year. Whew.

Did any of you Glen Park regulars take a tumble on the stairs while the escalator was out of commission?