Two people who ended up in a pile at the bottom of that malfunctioning escalator at Back Bay sue MBTA, escalator company; MBTA now suing escalator company, too

Two Louisiana residents yesterday sued the MBTA and escalator company Kone, Inc. for the injuries they say they suffered when an escalator they were riding up from the commuter-rail platform at Back Bay suddenly reversed, sending people hurtling back to the platform in a heap on Sept. 26, 2021.

They join two other Louisiana residents, Karson and Holly Bethay, who were even more seriously injured - they had to be admitted to Mass. General - in suing over the escalator reversal.

The Bethays, however, have dropped the MBTA from their suit and are now attempting to make Kone, Inc. pay for the aftermath of the escalator reversal, which they say include the need for ongoing medical care.

The MBTA, in turn, is now also suing Kone, alleging both that the company failed to adequately maintain the escalator and ignored a clause in its contract for escalator maintenance to reimburse the T for any legal costs over lawsuits involving escalators. The T says Kone inspected the escalator just three weeks before the incident.

In the latest suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Laura Sapp, of Metairie, LA, and Kathleen Lamkin, of Abita Springs, LA, say they had just gotten off a commuter train and were on their way up to the street level when the escalator suddenly reversed:

As a result of the subject escalator's malfunction, plaintiff Laura Sapp fell and was crushed against the moving escalator stairs by the weight of other escalator passengers that fell on top of her, resulting in numerous injuries including, but not limited to, disfiguring lacerations to her scalp, lacerations and contusions to her hands, and impact injuries to her shoulder resulting in a labral tear.

As a result of the subject escalator's malfunction, other passengers collided with Kathleen Lamkin, resulting in her tumbling over the top of the other passengers on the way to the train's platform landing. During her decent, her ankle was caught, and twisted, resulting in injuries, including but not limited to injury to her ankle.

Their complaint does not say if they knew the Bethays, who came up to Massachusetts to see the New Orleans Saints play the Patriots in Foxborough, and who were returning from that game when the incident happened.

In their suit, the Bethays - also suing on behalf of their two children and two friends' children who were with them - claim Kone, and an as yet unknown "John Doe" were negligent in general but specifically for failing to take certain steps that might have prevented the escalator from shifting into reverse and not stopping.

They allege that Kone failed to adequately inspect the one brake on the escalator to ensure it would actually work and that despite two similar incidents on the same escalator - in 1996 and 2011 - it decided not to install a second brake as a backup.

The 2011 reverse was similar to the 2021 incident: People were streaming up for a Bruins Stanley Cup parade when the escalator suddenly started going down. At least one boy had his feet sucked into the escalator mechanism; his mother had footprints on her back from where she was trampled.

In its answer to the Bethays's complaint, Kone says it is not to blame in part because nobody ever told it of any dangerous conditions or defective parts on the escalator, but that, in any case, whatever happened is entirely the fault of "a third-party or parties for whom the Defendant was not responsible," because of "modifications and/or alterations made by other persons or entities for whom the Defendant was not and is not responsible."

Also, the Bethays are mostly to blame, or in legal terms, "plaintiffs' comparative negligence was greater than that of the Defendants," Kone alleges.