Getty The stadium of the Milwaukee Brewers where an escalator broke, injuring fans, in June 2024.
A fan broke a femur bone and elderly people “were injured very badly and trampled over” when an escalator “completely gave away” at American Family Field, the stadium of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, on June 29, according to a sports media producer who was injured in the incident.
The CHGO Sports producer, Greg Braggs Jr., wrote on X, “Welp… I was one of them caught on this thing. A big portion of our group was on the escalator as it completely gave way with over 100 ppl on it. Probably the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me. Knee got [expletive] up but at the end of the day, I got lucky it wasn’t worse.”
“Someone broke their femur,” he wrote on X. “The entire escalator shook and everyone got scared, and then seconds later, the whole thing gave way and just turned into a roller coaster off the tracks. Piling people on top of each other as it charged us all to the bottom.”
Braggs Jr. added, “Some elderly people were injured very badly and trampled over. An older lady was right in front of me, so I tried to hold her up as we hit the bottom, and we both got completely taken out by the people behind us. A couple of people went right through my knee.”
The Milwaukee Brewers Say 11 People Were Injured in the Escalator Accident
A statement from the Milwaukee Brewers:
The Milwaukee Brewers wrote in a statement posted to their X page on June 29, “After the conclusion of today’s game, an escalator at American Family Field moving fans from the Terrace to Loge Level malfunctioned, resulting in an increased downward speed.”
According to the Brewers, six people were taken to area hospitals.
One of the strangest days in a very long time. This broken escalator caused unnecessary panic, stress and chaos for far too many people who expected to be safe attending a baseball game in Milwaukee.
“Eleven people were injured in the incident, five of them treated at the ballpark and six others transported to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. Our onsite physician and EMS were on the scene immediately, and we are appreciative of their quick response,” the statement says.
An Eyewitness Told a Local Newspaper She ‘Heard a Screeching Sound’
“While we were in line, we heard a screeching sound, which then led to about five to 10 seconds later the escalator picking up speed to probably about 10 to 15 miles per hour,” witness Kaylee Klein told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Then from the top where we were on the fourth level, we just saw fans like just plummeting down basically. Then someone else that was up there clicked the emergency stop button and I had yelled for everybody to back up from the area.”
She added, according to the newspaper, “I said to my boyfriend, ‘I don’t think it’s supposed to make that sound’ and seconds later, it was everyone going down. It was kind of like a oh [expletive] moment because you don’t really expect to see that or hear of it exactly.
“I looked over at the bottom and I saw at least three people injured and one person who just looked upset on the right of me,” Klein told the Journal Sentinel. “I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on there. It looked like it was two people who had their leg or ankles injured. I saw the stretcher but I didn’t see the exact injury of the person who was going on the stretcher.”