Escalator is cited in death at T station

The suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court on behalf of the woman’s family, states for the first time publicly that a medical examiner determined that the woman, Helen Jackson of Dorchester, died of strangulation, rather than from any heart condition, as was initially suggested by officials of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. She also suffered blunt trauma and wounds from the pressure of being pinned to the escalator, the suit says.

The lawsuit paints a dire picture of the MBTA’s monitoring of the escalator, in spite of past accidents with its equipment, leading to the delay of appropriate response by medical personnel to save the woman.

“This has been a horror for the family, especially given the agonizing and terrifying death that their mother went through,’’ said Max D. Stern, a Boston-based attorney for the estate of Jackson. The woman’s daughter, Citerial Trotman, has been named administrator of the estate.

A spokeswoman for the MBTA said yesterday that the agency had not seen the complaint, but that once it has, it “will respond in an appropriate fashion.’’

Jackson, a retired day-care volunteer and a church choir singer, had been en route to an eye doctor’s appointment at around 10 a.m. on Feb. 24 when she fell. Her scarf, jacket, and hair became entangled in the escalator on the Orange Line’s State Street stop, near City Hall. She was pronounced dead at Massachusetts General Hospital.

At the time, MBTA officials suggested the woman may have suffered from some type of cardiac arrest, though they did not cite their reason for the suggestion.

But witness accounts provided to the Globe in the weeks after the accident tell a story of a woman who lay pinned to the escalator’s platform, unable to escape the clenches of the metal. Some passersby did not notice or did not care to stop.

Those that did struggled unsuccessfully to free the woman, who by then had been pulled into the machinery so tightly that her body started to contort over the platform. The passersby who stopped had desperately called for any tool, scissors, or even nail clippers, to cut the woman free, but, as one man held her hand, Jackson died.

“She was struggling so much before she finally let go,’’ one man, Larry Fitzpatrick, who was a minister in training, told the Globe. He added: “She looked at me and just couldn’t hold on. She couldn’t hold on; she couldn’t.’’

In the time it took rescue personnel to arrive on the scene, the woman died.

Fitzpatrick said yesterday that the medical examiner’s determination and the lawsuit “has put everything into the light.’’

“I know what I saw; I was there,’’ he said. “A person who needlessly died could have been saved if certain things were in place.’’

Joe Pesaturo, a spokesman for the MBTA, said that although the agency has not seen the lawsuit yet, the incident was deemed an accident. He said that a state inspector found no defects with the escalator and that last month MBTA officials turned reports of their investigation over to the Suffolk district attorney’s office.

Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said last night that the accident remains under investigation. He said investigators must not only review witness accounts, but also the history of the escalator and any repairs.

“No decision as to potential criminal charges have been made, and that’s ultimately the aim of any death investigation,’’ he said.

But Stern said in the lawsuit that the MBTA had a responsibility to better monitor the escalator, considering a history of accidents on its machines. In 1994, a Globe series on the dangers of escalators, including the T’s equipment, uncovered an alarming increase in the number of injuries that occurred because the equipment had not been properly inspected.

In 1995, a 3-year-old Cambridge boy’s leg was severely gashed at the old Aquarium station escalators, which have since been rebuilt.

A year later, a Beacon Hill man got his coat caught in the escalator at State Street, ensnaring his arm, which had to be amputated.

In February 2005, a 34-year-old restaurant worker was killed at the Porter Square Station when the hood of his sweatshirt slipped into a gap in the escalator’s machinery.

At State Street, the MBTA had a watchman booth when Jackson was ensnared, but it was unmanned, according to the lawsuit. Security cameras, installed to monitor fare evaders, had picked up the frantic scrambles of the pedestrians in search for help, but no MBTA official saw the video and thus did not respond.

One of the bystanders had attempted to use an emergency call box, but it did not work properly, according to the suit.

A separate emergency button did stop the escalators.

But by then, Jackson was ensnared so tightly that she could not breathe, according to the suit.

Milton Valencia can be reached at mvalencia@globe.com.