It made me think of the extremely unfunny King’s Cross fire, and I guess a lot of Londoners will have the same thought, which is probably why the Guardian had this on their home page.
Which still doesn’t mean I can’t see the funny side of people falling down stairs. That’s part of the mechanism that makes it possible for me to travel via King’s Cross every day without becoming a (statistically unjustified) nervous wreck.
For those who haven’t watched yet, the videos are fairly benign in content. (Though I am an old fart and may be a bit jaded.)
I have only two questions, really.
How long did it take for somebody to hit the emergency stop button, (the escalator runs for quite awhile and I’m wondering if the stop button malfunctioned as well)?
Why was there somebody conveniently videoing the exact area affected at the exactly the right time to capture it all, (the distance shot is a hand-held camera, not security)?
The mall said that the escalator had last been inspected on Thursday, with no problems detected.
I think they’d better bring those inspectors in for questioning.
Newspaper Apple Daily said the reactivation could have affected the escalator’s computer data records.
That seems strange. If there’s a proper event log, it should timestamp each change. Does Apple Daily know, or are they speculating?
It’s possible that reengaging the auxiliary brake was an automatic reflex by the technicians, a standard safety drill. I’d sure want something like that locked down before sticking my head and hands inside.
Looking at it again, it looks like hand-held video of a flat screen playing either live or playback of the incident. Maybe a replay of the security feed?
On-the-ground video started after the malfunction.
I hit the kill switch a couple of times when I was very young… Sorry Glass Block department store…
Things which affect people are newsworthy because they affect people. I think that’s enough of a reason why it’s relevant. Journalism is ideally not meant to be entertainment.
That’s a really powerful story. Perceived danger becoming very real danger when there’s nowhere for people to go.
The Hillsborough disaster was so unexpected, so beyond the imagination of the authorities, that when this completely avoidable tragedy unfurled, all they could think about was covering their asses. Which doesn’t help prevent the next such Unfortunate Event.
I know the ToDo list is getting long, but I really want to add a robust, realistic, democratic response to various threat models.
Yeah, I cringed when I first saw the headline, and passed it over several times. The “rednecks snuff film” that wasn’t, kind of put me on my guard. But this material is important not just to scare ourselves with, but also to remind ourselves that the infrastructure we take for granted has got some nasty failure modes!
I agree, but there are many ways of presenting this. I think it is important for some people to watch that video (eg- escalator repair people, mall owners, etc) in order to prevent things like this from happening in the future. It should be available if you really want to find it. But, I don’t think this has a place above the fold. It’s in the direction of, but not nearly as bad as embedding videos of beheadings. I believe you can have the same level of journalism by simply reporting the facts (and maybe linking elsewhere to the actual video).
Was that possibly 51st Street? I hate that station.
I was impressed by the guy who jumped over the railing to the other escalator. Quick thinking!
This is why I love this site. Most of the time, there’s somebody around who can explain things like this.
well that situation deescalated quickly…
I read an article about this failure and I still don’t understand how it happened. The loop of steps in en escalator should be in equilibrium as long as it doesn’t break. I don’t get how it can suddenly roll backwards like that.
In an indirect way, haven’t we all been injured by an escalator?
This is the ultimate injury in my opinion.
@CoyoteDen posted a good explanation earlier (which I can’t vouch for, but it sounds convincing):
Escalators are programmed into my brain. I didn’t know this until the other day, when I walked up a deactivated escalator. It was surprisingly difficult to enter and exit. It was the reverse of five year old-me trying to get the hang of getting on the moving escalator without a helping adult hand.
The rise on escalator steps is about twice that of normal stairs, so if you’re not in the habit of walking on moving escalators it comes as a surprise.
Related:
Notice almost no one is descending in the usual way.
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