Accident prompts LIRR safety probe

If Irene Bernatzky, 88, of Lindenhurst, had fallen on a Long Island Rail Road escalator installed after 2000, it likely would have stopped, her clothing might not have become entangled in it, and she might be alive today. Escalators built after 2000 have special sensors that detect when a person has fallen and automatically shut down.

Instead, Bernatzky fell and died last month on an escalator at the Lindenhurst train station that was installed in 1994. According to preliminary reports, Bernatzky’s clothing got caught in the escalator, strangling her.

According to the manufacturer Otis, escalators should last at least 20 years without major overhauls. The escalators along the LIRR’s Babylon line vary widely in age, from as young as a year old at the Merrick and Bellmore stations to as old as 18 at the Baldwin station.

LIRR officials maintain that Bernatzky’s death was an accident that does not point to a failure of the escalator. “This escalator is inspected monthly and is maintained in good operating condition,” LIRR spokesman Sam Zambuto said.

There are 19 escalators at 17 stations across the system, and each one undergoes monthly inspections conducted by a third-party contractor. The LIRR uses Tyssen Krupp for the inspections, which follow the American Society of Mechanical Engineers standards. During the inspections, approved ASME inspection forms are filled out. The Lindenhurst escalator was last inspected on Feb. 9, only weeks before the March 13 accident.

The accident has raised safety concerns at LIRR stations, especially among older riders. Evelyn Bishop, of Rockville Centre, said she often takes the train into Manhattan on Saturdays — and often discovers that the escalator at the Rockville Centre station is not functioning. “I’m in the city almost every Saturday,” she said, “and 99 percent of the time, that escalator is not working.”

Bishop said she saw an older man struggling to climb the stairs one Saturday and wrote to the LIRR, asking why the escalator was off. She received a response that said the LIRR has “an ongoing problem with customers and/or vandals who shut the escalator down by pushing the emergency button located at the bottom.”