Chinese Escalators Are Death Traps

[jimmy olsen]

What the fuck, an elevator accident killing someone I can understand, but an Escalator? That's just ridiculous.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/27/china/chinese-mother-killed-escalator/

Beijing (CNN)—Security camera footage has emerged of a mother saving her young son's life seconds before losing her own on an escalator in China.

The 30-second video begins innocently enough: As the escalator in a shopping mall almost reaches the top, a woman in a white shirt and black skirt lifts up her young son to get ready to step off.

But as she does, a metal panel collapses under her feet. She falls into the gap.

Struggling with only her upper body above the structure, the mother is seen pushing her son forward. The boy is quickly pulled to safety by a mall employee standing near the top of the escalator.

Two other mall employees try to drag the trapped woman out, but within a few seconds, she disappears through the hole into the escalator shaft.



Despite a four-hour rescue operation at the upscale AZG Mall in central China, firefighters declared the woman dead when they finally cut the escalator open and found her body Sunday afternoon, state media reported.


'Human error'


Officials in Jingzhou, a city of more than 5 million residents in Hubei province, blamed human error for the tragedy at a news conference Monday night.

Mall employees found the collapsed panel to be loose and protruding five minutes before the incident but failed to stop the escalator for inspection and repair, said Chen Guanxin, the local official in charge of work safety.

State media had earlier identified the victim as a 30-year-old stay-at-home mother.

CNN's repeated phone calls to the shopping mall went unanswered Monday. A representative from the maintenance service provider declined to comment.


Mounting number of escalator accidents


State media on Monday also reported two other incidents involving escalators in shopping malls.

In southwestern Guangxi province, a toddler's left hand and arm were caught in a gap of an escalator on Monday after he tripped and fell at the bottom, firefighters told local media. He suffered multiple trauma, including a fractured arm, and was hospitalized.

In Beijing, a boy's foot was stuck in an escalator at a shopping mall on Sunday, according to People's Daily. He was rescued by firefighters within half an hour and appeared only slightly injured, witnesses told the newspaper.

Last year, 13 people were injured when an escalator traveling upward abruptly reversed direction at a busy subway station in Shanghai. In 2011, a similar incident at a Beijing subway station killed a teenage boy and injured 30 others.


Victim's family angry


Frustrated with the mall's handling of the situation, the victim's family members have gone online to call for a thorough and transparent investigation.

"An ordinary Sunday shopping trip ended up in such a sudden tragedy, almost ruining an entire family," said user @kkcake, who identified herself as the victim's sister-in-law and posted some of the earliest pictures from the scene on the popular microblogging site Weibo.

"The shopping mall is still open and the killer escalators are still running," she added. "Shoppers have no idea about the tragedy upstairs and no one knows if such disasters will strike again."

CNN's Shen Lu in Beijing contributed to this report.

[Eddie Teach]

Old news. Mono scooped you.

[jimmy olsen]

Where?

[DGuller]

Nowhere. 

[viper37]

Frustrated with the mall's handling of the situation, the victim's family members have gone online to call for a thorough and transparent investigation.

This is where you know it's in China.  If it was in USA, they'd be preparing to sue the mall.

[Archy]

Frustrated with the mall's handling of the situation, the victim's family members have gone online to call for a thorough and transparent investigation.

In China they should be happy that the mall doesn't sue them for negative publicity ending in labour camp.
This is where you know it's in China.  If it was in USA, they'd be preparing to sue the mall.

[Monoriu]

There was a time when Tim would read my thread and mock me

[garbon]

There was a time when Tim would read my thread and mock me

Get some new material

[DontSayBanana]

Having seen one of the less sanitized versions, and growing up around first responders, I hate the phrasing,

"Despite a four-hour rescue operation at the upscale AZG Mall in central China, firefighters declared the woman dead when they finally cut the escalator open and found her body Sunday afternoon, state media reported."

At the risk of sounding insensitive, the machinery was still going even after she was sucked in.  It wasn't a rescue operation; it was them having to get all the bits.  There wouldn't have been a body to declare dead.  Every EMT knows there are some accidents that are so bad, all you can do is get the hose and clean up.

[Syt]

During my public admin training I spent some time in the district's traffic department. As part of an effort to get a speed limit in a certain section of the local autobahn there was rather detailed report on a motorcyclist who had crashed in the dark, and who was not discovered until morning, spread out over several hundred meters of road after having been run over "by an undetermined number of vehicles."

An acquaintance in Germany used to work as EMT, but he had to quit after scraping one guy too many off the railroad tracks, because he couldn't handle it anymore.

[Josquius]

Has somebody made a bad taste "on nom nom" gif yet?

But yes. Pretty damn fucked up stuff

[The Brain]

A woman was injured in a Stockholm subway escalator a while ago. They shut down a lot of escalators and gradually brought them back online.

[HVC]

Today they were repairing an escalator at my subway stop. Coincidence? Yes, yes it is.

[crazy canuck]

Years ago I knew a guy who's main area of practice was defending claims arising out of escalator related injuries.  I think they have become safer over time though so he probably had to expand his practice to other areas of law.

[Malthus]

Years ago I knew a guy who's main area of practice was defending claims arising out of escalator related injuries.  I think they have become safer over time though so he probably had to expand his practice to other areas of law.

... and then someone invented Crocs, and his practice was saved?