LIRR workers questioned in escalator probe

Four Long Island Rail Road workers who witnessed a woman fall and become injured on a Babylon station escalator were called into the LIRR's headquarters Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation into the incident, a union official said.

Christopher Natale, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen Local 56, said that four communications workers in his union were at the scene Monday when an unidentified woman fell on an upward escalator and had her pants caught in the moving stairs.

Natale said someone pushed the emergency button to stop the escalator and helped "dislodge" the woman.

Natale said the LIRR employees were called in to meet with the LIRR's legal department to answer some questions.

"They want to find out the details because the woman hasn't come forward as of yet," Natale said Tuesday.

LIRR spokesman Salvatore Arena said Tuesday that "the incident is still under investigation," and that no new information was available.

"Initial reports indicate the woman was not seriously injured and that she boarded the next westbound train," Arena said in a statement Monday night, adding the agency is examining the escalator to see if it is working properly.

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The woman apparently realized she was heading up to the wrong platform for her train, turned around while on the escalator and may have hurt her hand, Arena said.

The report of a possible injury comes three weeks after the death of an 88-year-old woman whose clothing became trapped on an escalator at the Lindenhurst station. Irene Bernatzky died March 13 after she fell on the up escalator at Lindenhurst and was asphyxiated by a piece of clothing that got entangled in the moving steps. Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police continue to investigate that case.

The Lindenhurst and Babylon escalators are among those slated for new technology that includes sensors and monitoring systems.

A witness who went to the woman's aid Monday said clothing had become trapped as the woman was riding up the escalator shortly after 10 a.m.

Kristin Comple, 40, of Babylon, said she was dropping a friend off at the station when she heard screams. Comple ran up the stairs adjacent to the escalator, climbed over the railing and partition to the escalator, and pulled the fabric of the woman's pants from the mechanism, she said. At that point, someone at the bottom of the escalator hit an emergency stop switch to prevent the mechanism from moving forward, she said.

The woman "must have lost her footing . . . and she fell back," Comple, a massage therapist, said. "You just react. You just go. I was glad I was there to help."