OC Escalator Lawsuit Closed Two Years After Settlement

Nearly three years after a Vermont high school student filed suit against the town of Ocean City and a private manufacturer after suffering serious injuries when an escalator collapsed in the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in 2006, the books were finally closed this week with an undisclosed amount of damages paid to the victim.

In May 2006, several members of a high school band from Vermont, in Ocean City for the annual Youth Music Competition at the Convention Center, were injured when the north elevator to the second floor stopped suddenly and starting running in reverse. Several of the students fell during the accident and a handful were taken to Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin where they were treated for a wide variety of injuries.

Nearly three years to the day of the accident, one of the injured students, Rebecca Beall, of Barre, Vt., filed suit in U.S. District Court last June, claiming negligence against the town of Ocean City, the Ocean City Convention Center and Visitors Bureau, Inc., and the private ThyssenKrupp Elevator Company, which the town retained to service and maintain the faulty escalator.

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