Chinese woman trapped in escalator dies, but saves toddler son

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Mon Jul 27, 2015, 03:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Associated Press, via Fox News

Published July 27, 2015·Associated Press

BEIJING – A Chinese woman died after being trapped in a shopping mall escalator, but not before pushing her 2-year-old son to safety. ... Sunday's horrific accident in the central city of Jingzhou was caught on surveillance camera footage that circulated heavily on the Internet in China.

The woman -- identified in media reports as 30-year-old Xiang Liujuan -- is shown reaching the top of the escalator when the section of landing platform she had stepped onto suddenly collapses, trapping her inside the still-moving machinery.

The footage shows that Xiang managed to push her son into the arms of shop attendants near the top of the escalator. The attendants tried to pull her to safety, but Xiang fell into the mechanism and was killed. ... The state-run People's Daily's online edition and other media outlets said her body was recovered four hours later, after crews disassembled the escalator.

Although escalator deaths are extremely rare, China's breakneck economic development and sometimes cavalier attitude toward safety, quality control and maintenance have led to frequent industrial accidents such as fires, building and bridge collapses, and ship sinkings or collisions.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/07/27/chinese-woman-dies-after-being-trapped-in-escalator-but-saves-2-year-old-son/

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There's a video of the incident at the link. It happens in seconds. There is no warning.

The next time you see a maintenance crew repairing an escalator on the DC-area Metro system, remember to thank them. You wouldn't want this to happen to you. There are buttons on Metro escalators that, when pushed, will stop the escalator, but I don't know if anyone in the position of the woman in China would have been able to hit the "stop" button. A bystander should have been able to stop the escalator, assuming that he knew where the button was and had the presence of mind to push it.

This is why we have safety standards:

ASME A17.1/CSA B44 - 2013 Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators

ETA: there are actually quite a few:

International Standards Related to Lifts, Escalators and Moving Walks



Escalator mechanism visible during repairs. Westlake Station, Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, Seattle, Washington.

Date 7 May 2009
Source Photo by Joe Mabel

[LiberalElite]

1. There was a similar

horrific accident in NYC many years ago. Loose step on escalator. Woman fell into machinery.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19870917&id=HPAlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ifwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6888,5104845&hl=en

[hollysmom]

5. I remember that, then there was another where no one was killed a few weeks later.

Kept me off escalators for a long time, I still hold on with both hands toone side, so I can jump up if I have to.

[LiberalElite]

7. I don't recall the second one but

I think of the fatal one just about every time I'm on an escalator - which is several times a week.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. Employee Killed When Caught In Escalator Machinery

Employee Killed When Caught In Escalator Machinery

EMPLOYEE #1 GOT ON THE ASCENDING ESCALATOR AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE BUILDING. THE RISER THAT SHE STEPPED ON DIDN'T COME UP IN THE PROPER POSITION. SHE SLIPPED THROUGH THE OPENING CREATED BY THE MALFUNCTIONING RISER AND FELL INTO THE ESCALATOR MECHANISM. SHE WAS CRUSHED TO DEATH.

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. I remember that

[drgonzosghost]

20. Look at the Doonesbury from that same issue!

It's about Trump running for preznit...

[marble falls]

2. So the GOP IS wrong. The communists have weak regulations and no enforement after all.

[fasttense]

4. Yes, capitalism in the so called communists hands is just as bad as anywhere else.

It just truly amazes me that a supposed communist country allows capitalism. What next? A democracy tries a dictatorship...oh wait.

[jtuck004]

6. *snort* +1 n/t

[onehandle]

3. When I was a kid, my tennis shoe got caught in an escalator.

My dad had to pull my foot out of my shoe as it was being torn up.

This was in a brand new mall. The escalator was unusually narrow.

He raised Hell. Two weeks later the escalator was ripped out and replaced with stairs.

[Journeyman]

8. Suddenly, all the old Gahan Wilson escalator comics aren't so funny anymore. . .

[hlthe2b]

9. when I was a teen... there was a horrendous escalator accident in an Atlanta suburban mall...

A young child got his shoe or laces caught in the escalator and it was literally chewing his foot off. The screams were so blood-curtling that I can remember everyone in tears hearing it. I know the child was freed, survived and taken to a local hospital. I imagine he lost part of his leg as well.

I will never forget the sound of those cries/screams and how helpless it made me feel.

So very tragic....

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. People get their shoes caught in Metro escalators too.

Flip flops offer no protection, yet I see people wearing them every day.

[yuiyoshida]

11. had it covered this morning at 4:48am

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027014430

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. Yikes. Sorry. The forum hosts might want to lock this. NT

[yuiyoshida]

14. Its up to them

[cosmicone]

16. Early riser !!! n/t

[yuiyoshida]

17. sometimes

yeah.

[cosmicone]

15. They need sensors to detect failure and an automatic emergency stop.

There should also be a manual emergency stop at both ends where accidents become fatal.

If those Chinese shopkeepers could have access to such an emergency button, the woman would be alive today.

[Helen Borg]

19. It's so eerie...

[BigDemVoter]

21. Yikes. . .

I was wondering if this was a typo and somebody meant to say "elevator." Horrible.

[TexasBushwhacker]

22. Awful! My cousin got a chunk of her butt bitten out

when she was a kid, she let her feet slide over the end of the escalator, where the steps go into the floor. Except ske slipped a fell on her butt. I see parents letting their kids do this and I always tell them what happened to my cousin. You should always avoid the sides too.