Content area
Full Text
State investigators believe backup power sources were unable to move two stranded Roosevelt Island Tramway cars containing nearly 70 passengers because the tram's air brakes would not release, officials said.
"They couldn't get the cars to move because the brakes were stuck," said a source familiar with the Department of Labor's investigation.
But George Shea, a spokesman for the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp., which runs the tram, said he did not believe this was the case.
The cause of Tuesday's power surge - which blew three of the tramway's giant fuses, bringing two tram cars to a halt high above the East River and leaving 69 passengers stuck for nearly 12 hours - is still a mystery.
After the 5:20 p.m. outage, two separate backup...