Fan suffered a broken thigh, says witness

A fan suffered a broken femur and elderly people were “very seriously injured and run over” when an escalator “completely gave way” at American Family Field, the stadium of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, on June 29, according to a sportswriter who was injured in the incident.

CHGO Sports producer Greg Braggs Jr. wrote on X“Well… I was one of the ones trapped in that thing. A large part of our group was on the escalator when it completely gave way with over 100 people on it. Probably the worst thing that ever happened to me. My knee was (expletive) busted, but at the end of the day I was lucky it wasn’t worse.”

“Someone broke their femur,” he wrote on X. “The whole escalator was shaking and everyone was scared and then seconds later the whole thing gave way and turned into a roller coaster that came off the tracks. People were piled on top of each other as we all went down.”

Braggs Jr. added: “Some elderly people were badly injured and trampled. One elderly lady was right in front of me, so I tried to hold her up when we got to the bottom and we both got completely knocked over by the people behind us. A couple of people went right through my knee.”

According to the Milwaukee Brewers, 11 people were injured in the escalator accident

The Milwaukee Brewers wrote in a statement posted on their X page on June 29: “Following the conclusion of today’s game, there was a malfunction of an escalator at American Family Field that transported fans from the stands to the box, resulting in an increased speed of descent.”

According to the Brewers, six people were taken to area hospitals.

“Eleven people were injured in the incident, five of whom were treated at the stadium and six others were taken to nearby hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. Our on-site doctor and emergency services were immediately on site and we are grateful for their quick response,” the statement said.

An eyewitness told a local newspaper that she had “heard a screeching noise”

“While we were waiting in line, we heard a screeching noise, and about five to 10 seconds later, the escalator accelerated to about 10 to 15 miles per hour,” witness Kaylee Klein told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Then from above, where we were on the fourth level, we saw the fans basically just plummet down. Then someone else up there hit the emergency stop button and I yelled for everyone to get out of the area.”

According to the newspaper, she added: “I said to my friend, ‘I don’t think it’s supposed to make that noise,’ and seconds later everyone fell to the ground. It was kind of an ‘oh’ moment because you don’t really expect to see something like that or hear about it exactly.”

“I looked down and saw at least three injured people and one person to my right who just looked distraught,” Klein told the Journal Sentinel. “I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. It looked like there were two people with leg or ankle injuries. I saw the stretcher, but I couldn’t see the exact injury of the person on the stretcher.”