T extends elevator and escalator pact despite complaints about contractor

Boston.com / News / Local / Mass.:: "The MBTA board of directors reluctantly approved a five-month, $3.5 million contract extension yesterday with the company responsible for maintaining the T's elevators and escalators, less than a day after a Watertown woman was injured after being trapped on an MBTA escalator at Harvard Square and several weeks after a man was choked to death on an escalator at Porter Square. Though T officials said there were no defects on the escalators, the transit agency has had a series of major malfunctions of its elevators and escalators, all of which are maintained by Kone Inc., whose headquarters are in Illinois."