A Chinese shopping mall and the manufacturers of one of its escalators were to blame for the death of a young mother, investigators say.
The woman narrowly managed to push her son to safety before she fell into the still moving escalator on Sunday.
Investigators concluded that store staff lacked training and should have shut the machinery down earlier.
The incident in Jingzhou, in Hubei province, has sparked widespread anger at the department store.
Xiang Liujuan, 30, was travelling on an upward escalator with her son, and as she stepped onto a metal panel at the top of the escalator, it gave way, catching her and dragging her down.
CCTV footage caught her just managing to save her son before disappearing into the still rolling escalator at the Anliang department store.
Five minutes before the accident, staff members noticed that a panel had become loose, but no proper instructions were given and nobody stopped the escalator, noted the preliminary report.
“The company lacks adequate training of staff on how to deal with emergency escalator situations, and lacks practice, which led to the escalator not being shut down (before the accident),” it said.
The manufacturer, Shenlong Elevator Ltd, was criticised for the design of its product’s metal panels, which investigators said could easily work their way loose.
CCTV footage reveals that as the young mother travelled on the escalator from the 6th floor to the 7th floor with her son, two staff members were standing at the top of the escalator on the 7th floor, joined by another staff member.
It’s not clear if they knew that there was a problem with the escalator or not or if they gave any warnings.
According to the husband of the victim, there were no signs or any warning at the bottom of the escalator, and only when the mother and son were already reaching the top did the women shout to her about the danger, but it was too late, and his wife was dragged down before they could finish the sentence.
The victim’s son is reported to have witnessed how his mother was “swallowed” by the escalator, and was telling the relatives to save her while the rescue was going on, reports the BBC.
The woman narrowly managed to push her son to safety before she fell into the still moving escalator on Sunday.
Investigators concluded that store staff lacked training and should have shut the machinery down earlier.
The incident in Jingzhou, in Hubei province, has sparked widespread anger at the department store.
Xiang Liujuan, 30, was travelling on an upward escalator with her son, and as she stepped onto a metal panel at the top of the escalator, it gave way, catching her and dragging her down.
CCTV footage caught her just managing to save her son before disappearing into the still rolling escalator at the Anliang department store.
Five minutes before the accident, staff members noticed that a panel had become loose, but no proper instructions were given and nobody stopped the escalator, noted the preliminary report.
“The company lacks adequate training of staff on how to deal with emergency escalator situations, and lacks practice, which led to the escalator not being shut down (before the accident),” it said.
The manufacturer, Shenlong Elevator Ltd, was criticised for the design of its product’s metal panels, which investigators said could easily work their way loose.
CCTV footage reveals that as the young mother travelled on the escalator from the 6th floor to the 7th floor with her son, two staff members were standing at the top of the escalator on the 7th floor, joined by another staff member.
It’s not clear if they knew that there was a problem with the escalator or not or if they gave any warnings.
According to the husband of the victim, there were no signs or any warning at the bottom of the escalator, and only when the mother and son were already reaching the top did the women shout to her about the danger, but it was too late, and his wife was dragged down before they could finish the sentence.
The victim’s son is reported to have witnessed how his mother was “swallowed” by the escalator, and was telling the relatives to save her while the rescue was going on, reports the BBC.
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