NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- State and private officials conducted a preliminary inspection Monday of an escalator that malfunctioned at Giants Stadium this weekend, injuring seven people immediately after the Giants-Patriots game.
Officials from the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, the Department of Community Affairs and the Schindler Elevator Corp., which operates the escalators and elevators at the stadium, inspected the upper-tier escalator at Gate A. That's where the malfunction occurred shortly after Saturday night's game.
"We just did a quick visual inspection to see if there was anything obvious to the eye,'' said Jim Minish, executive vice president of facilities for the NJSEA, which operates the stadium. He said the investigation would resume sometime later this week or early next week.
Of the seven people injured, two were treated at the scene and released and five were taken to Hackensack University Medical Center. Two of the five were treated and released, while the other three remained hospitalized Monday, according to hospital spokeswoman Nancy Radwin.
Radwin declined to give specific details on their conditions, citing hospital policy.
According to Minish, all escalators were inspected and upgraded in 2000 after a similar malfunction involving a different upper-tier escalator at Gate A. He said the escalators' safety systems -- specifically the sensors and emergency braking systems that are activated if an escalator is moving too fast -- also were upgraded in 2003 and 2004.
All escalators are inspected twice yearly by the state Department of Community Affairs and were last inspected in August, Minish said.
A phone message left Monday at Schindler's North American headquarters in Morristown was not returned.
While investigators have not yet determined the cause of the malfunction, Minish said it appeared to have occurred when the escalator suddenly sped up, then stopped, causing one or more of the bottom steps to buckle and come off its track.
The escalator was closed immediately after the incident and remained out of service for Sunday's New York Jets-Kansas City Chiefs game.
While the Giants open the playoffs on the road this Sunday at Tampa Bay, they conceivably could play another game at Giants Stadium if they reach the NFC Championship game on Jan. 20 and play Washington, which holds a lower wild-card seeding.
Saturday night's accident was similar to an escalator malfunction at Denver's Coors Field in 2003 that injured more than 30 people, including one woman who lost her leg. In that incident, the escalator slowed down and then sped up suddenly, throwing people to the bottom.
An investigation later found that the three-story escalator had operated for six months without a permit, though it passed an inspection two days before the accident.
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