Dozens being plucked from stuck Roosevelt Island Trams

  Eyewitness News

(Midtown-WABC, April 18, 2006) (WABC) -- 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. There are also reports of a 12-month-old in the tram as well. No injuries were reported.

Eyewitness News spoke to a Wendy Oppenheim, 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 couple whose children are on board, trying to stay calm. "The longer it goes on the more frustrating it is ... it's at a snails pace ...we're told they can only hold 14 at a time [in the basket]," the father said.

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.

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•