This tram car is stuck over 1st Avenue
Rescuers were seen practicing using the cages that would be use to rescue the passengers
Posted on 04/18/2006 7:31:44 PM PDT by conservative in nyc
Two Roosevelt Island Tram cars carrying dozens of people over the East River were left hanging Tuesday when the system lost power due to a mechanical problem, officials say.
Rescue crews have begun the process of using cages and baskets to get the passengers off.
Both cars stopped moving around 5:15 p.m., stranding about 80 people, officials say. The tramcars were still stalled after 7 p.m. while engineers worked to restore power.
One of the tramcars had about 50 people, the other about 30. We are told that there are nine children on board. No injuries were reported.
Eyewitness News spoke to a woman on board one of the tram cars. She says they are asking rescuers to supply bottles for babies on board, as well as water for some of the elderly passengers.
Parents waiting on the Roosevelt Island side are anxious about the rescue. Eyewitness News reporter Lucy Yang spoke to a woman whose children are on board, trying to stay calm.
Shannon Sohn is in NewsCopter7 above the scene with late details.
One of the trams is stuck above the East River. It has made some movement. They did get some power back from their generator system and were able to move these trains just a little bit, but not quite enough.
Officials are telling Eyewitness News that they still have hope that they can get the back up generator working to get these people off the trams. If they can't do it in a timely fashion, police are setting up basket rescues. They are basically going to drag the baskets across the cables one at a time to take people off and bring them back across the cables.
The people have already been on board for nearly four hours so you can imagine it must be a tense situation up there.
The tram system, which opened in 1976 to carry Roosevelt Island residents to and from Manhattan, is the only commuter cable car system in North America, according to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation.
Tramcars on the system stall occasionally, the last time around Labor Day.
Please tell me there's a potty!!!
Whoops! The first caption should go with the second picture. The first picture was taken this afternoon, when the tram was still over the East River.
It's right below them.
The breathless coverage by the New York Fox5 team is hilarious! They're trying to get the people on the trams to panic and they just can't do it. My chest is hurting from all the laughing I've been doing! Priceless.
~ Blue Jays ~
So agree with you. Changed to channel 7 ABC and it seems little better but oh the speculations are ridiculous. NYPD and NYFD are in control- Not to worry.
Fox5 is using words like "peril, fear, frightening, and terror" so that one would think they were dangling by a single strand of steel thousands of feet above a crevasse in the Austrian Alps or something. The coverage is too funny.
~ Blue Jays ~
As long as I wasn't in danger of a cable break, I would rather just wait until they got power back. Just drop me a diet coke and a paperback.
yup , I changed stations when Rosanna Scotto[Ch5] asked if they were feeling ill from the rocking motion
... 1010WINS asked a passenger if "the children wiil be restless"...soon
to all of you FReepers around the nation,and abroad , this is NYC TV "journalism" doing it's giddy , loopy wallTOwall coverage of a minor event , ... Bill Ritter [Ch7] said that passengers were "plucked" from the car,...
There is no way I'll change the channel from Fox5 News because there might be boring sane coverage on other channels! It is like the comedy amateur hour here. I can't remember the last time I busted a gut laughing like this so hard. Oh, I'm howling with the drama!
~ Blue Jays ~
According to local news reports, they tried to restart the power twice, and it worked for a little bit and failed again.
The NYPD has practiced rescuing people using this basket system before. The basket goes above the tram, and people in the tram climb a ladder to the rescue basket (and I think are attached to a safety rope while climbing out). There's little chance of passengers falling into the river.
They keep on talking about the "dangerous lack of food and water" as if starvation and thirst are even remote possibilities. A nice book and Diet Coke would be perfect companions for this very minor inconvenience.
They're chattering about how one of the trams was "lucky" to have a airline flight attendant aboard to maintain calm. You can't make this stuff up!
~ Blue Jays ~
so , I expect some of the "print reporters" will have fun with the gaffes by TV news readers
They just used the word "anguished" to describe the feelings of people aboard the trams. Classic!
~ Blue Jays ~
LOL (rolling eyes)
[snicker] the AlreadyRescued are being "debriefed"[LOL!!]
... back in the studio , the newsReaders are prompting the FieldReporter to get an interview
oh THE Joy , Mayor Mike is doing a "standup"
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