Broken SEPTA elevators cause frustration among wheelchair bound, more riders

PHILADELPHIA - An Old City woman who lost motor function below her waist after being shot by a stray bullet is asking SEPTA to pay more attention to broken elevators along its line. 

Confident in her freedom of movement, Amanda Parezo leaves her Old City home and moves along 2nd Street toward SEPTA’s nearby station on the Market-Frankford Line, but it wasn’t always this way. 

"Out of nowhere bang, bang, bang,"she recalled of her injury.

On May 19, 2021, a stray bullet hit her in the back after a kickball game with friends in a Fishtown park. She said, "I’m thinking I have a spinal cord injury. Immediate numbness sweep through to my toes."

Holding a doctoral degree in occupational therapy, Parezo was left with no motor function below her waist. 

Though she is able to drive, she also relies on SEPTA to get around. 

While on her way to meet friends last week, she discovered the elevator broken at Girard Station. 

Frustrated and weeping, she captured video of the incident in an Instagram post. 

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In an interview with FOX29 Thursday, Parezo said, "put yourself in my situation. What would you do if the elevator wasn’t working? I just started to cry, and I don’t know what to do."

Last fall, on the way to a Phillies game, she said the elevator was down at SEPTA’s Walnut-Locust Station. It was working when FOX 29 checked Thursday, but a frequent rider says it’s a problem. 

Patricia Wells said, at least once a month it is down. 

"I think they are trying to get it back to where it used to be, but I think it’s people on the elevator who don’t know how to use it," said Wells. 

SEPTA said it operates and maintains 141 elevators along with the PATCO Line's elevators with a 30-person repair staff. 

Its spokesperson says downtime for a broken elevator averages about one to two hours, and it tries to quickly list busted elevators on its web site and app.

SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said, "for that person who encounters a problem, it’s not much consolation to hear it’s going to be down for an hour or two because they encountered a problem, and it may keep them from where they want to go."

Parezo says both times the broken elevator was not listed on SEPTA’s app. 

She’ll keep riding, but wants more attention to the problem.