Nine individuals found themselves in a harrowing predicament at the Vine City MARTA station, after a concert by Beyoncé. The incident, which unfolded just past midnight, left seven with minor injuries and two with severe harm, including one broken ankle, according to MARTA and witness reports.
The chaos reportedly began when an unidentified person's reaction to an insect caused them to scream and bolt, setting off a chain reaction. Amid the panic, an escalator carrying concertgoers surged then ceased abruptly, precipitating a tumble of bodies. "The initial reports were that a woman was scared of an insect and screamed and ran away from it, and others panicked not knowing what was happening," a MARTA spokesperson detailed in a statement obtained by Atlanta News First.
"It just created a whole entire slide full of people," recounted Jacobi Edwards, a Westlake High School student, to FOX 5 Atlanta. Witness Amber Anderson, described her fright to Atlanta News First, saying, "He now is up under someone, I slide up under him, there’s somebody that comes behind me. I feared suffocation." The incident has sparked fears among the public, with another concertgoer, Latoia Farmer, vowing never to use MARTA again after her own ordeal.
The troubled history of MARTA's escalators has been thrust back into the limelight as a result of the incident. MARTA has been attempting to modernize its infrastructure since 2015, including escalators and elevators, through a $40 million project hampered by parts shortages and a prolonged implementation phase. By late 2024, nearly 75% of escalators had been updated, but it has been unclear if the escalator at Vine City had received such updates.
While some of the injured, like Jaylen Black are reconsidering their view of escalators altogether after the accident, MARTA and the manufacturer, Schindler, are already working to ascertain the cause. "I just kept telling myself, ‘I don’t want to die like this. I don’t want to die on my birthday,’" Black told Atlanta News First post-surgery. Schindler has extended its sympathies to those affected and is committed to investigating the issue further, but as of now, they've declined to speculate on the cause.
