China Escalator Accident: Cleaner Trapped

A spokesperson with the shopping mall apologized for the incident and said that the escalators there are regularly maintained, although this has done little to quell people’s concerns over China’s “man-eating” machines.

A Shanghai man has had his lower leg amputated after becoming trapped in a mall escalator, the third serious escalator-related accident in China in a week. Industry insiders said it’s unsafe to clean the escalator while in operation and should be banned.

On Tuesday, a one-year-old toddler was dragged into one of the moving staircases, when he tripped and fell on the escalator, causing his left arm to be dragged into the machinery.

Authorities from the Market Monitoring Bureau of Shanghai’s Changning district are conducting an investigation into the latest incident. Last Sunday, 30-year-old mum Xiang Liujuan was carrying her two-year-old son when she stepped off the escalator at the AZG Mall in Jingzhou in Hubei province and fell through the floorplate.

The inspection and maintenance of China’s 2.4 million escalators are mostly done by the manufacturers. A report by the country’s Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), cited by the state Xinhua news agency, found that more than 110,000 escalators have potential safety issues of which over 26,000 have not yet been repaired.

It is the latest in a series of accidents involving escalators in China. Improper use of escalators also leads to accidents.