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Carnage On The Escalators

Young man plunges from escalator at Peter Jones in Sloane Square
Man believed to be in 20s critically ill in hospital after suffering multiple injuries by falling from escalator at Chelsea department store

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By Tom Brooks-Pollock, and agency
5:20PM GMT 30 Dec 2014

A man is seriously ill in hospital after falling from a fifth floor escalator in a crowded London department store.
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"Staff said he fell from the fifth floor to the ground floor. They were all very upset.
"One woman who witnessed it was taken away, she was shaking and looked very, very shaken."

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...tor-fall-at-Peter-Jones-in-Sloane-Square.html
 
The last time I was in London, I saw an old lady and what looked like her very elderly mother get on the tube escalator going up as I was going down. I was just heading towards the platform, when I heard 'STOP, STOP'. The very elderly lady had fallen over backwards and had cut open her head on the sharp steps :(. I did head back to help, but the emergency stop had already been pressed, and a member of Tube staff had already magically appeared. She was still alive when I left, but as she appeared to be in her nineties, I doubt she would have survived the shock.
 
How awful! :(

I was on a tube escalator myself when a young couple decided to do something daft.
The man climbed onto the handrail and rode it down to the bottom, showing off to his girlfriend. When he landed, he staggered a bit, but he was OK. His girlfriend followed and she came off the handrail. She bounced and rolled all the way down to the bottom, but she got up. She staggered away, clearly in pain and shock.

Very silly!
 
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There was also a gif on Reddit of a bloke trying the escalator planking, who fell off and broke the barrier and all sorts.
 
Daftbugger1 said:
The very elderly lady had fallen over backwards and had cut open her head on the sharp steps :(.
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Some of those escalators are incredibly steep, and it can be a bit disorientating when going up because your instinct is to lean back to level out your field of vision. That's probably what happened.

Incidentally, in London the adverts at the side of tube escalators I've been on were all parallel to the natural ground, which I suppose helps prevent this type of accident. I noticed when in Prague that their metro ads are parallel with the (very steep) escalator handrail, which seems to actually increase the disorientating effect. I wonder if someone has studied this...?
 
There's an impressive outdoor escalator in Albufeira on the Algarve where I had a great holiday a couple of years ago. It's transports you between the beach level and the top of the cliffs. It's quite clanky and squealy and starting to rust.

Also I remember being in Basingstoke Woolworths not long before the store went into administration and saw the aftermath of an escalator accident - there was a middle-aged woman lying on the bottom step of the (stationary) escalator being treated by paramedics. Didn't look life-threatening, but there was blood.
 
The comments below indicate that the escalator probably broke and not the result of the police speeding it up.
 
In the early 2000s, I remember riding on the long rattly escalator that went down from the Pallasades into the indoor rag market in the old Bull Ring centre in Birmingham. I took my Walkman out of my pocket to change a tape and accidentally dropped it. It smashed and the pieces fell all the way to the bottom but the earphone jack got caught between the steps and my rather nice Phillips headphones were yanked off my head. One of the stallholders saw and pressed the emergency stop button. I'm sure I was spared a nasty accident that day. That place was spooky in it's own right if anybody remembers it.
 
heisenbear said:
riding on the long rattly escalator that went down from the Pallasades into the indoor rag market in the old Bull Ring centre in Birmingham.
Click to expand...

Yes I /do/ remember that! Gave me the grues :oops:
 
heisenbear said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-33672037

In the news today. Nasty :-(
Click to expand...

Always a good idea to quote some text.

A woman was killed after falling into an escalator in a shopping centre in central China, local media report.

Surveillance footage from Sunday's incident shows a metal panel at the top of the escalator giving way, causing the woman and her toddler to stumble.

The woman, identified by local media as Xiang Liujuan, 30, was able to push her child to safety as she fell in.

The incident in Jingzhou, in Hubei province, has sparked widespread anger at the department store.

The woman fell into the escalator at 10:09 local time (02:09 GMT) on Sunday, state broadcaster CCTV and newspaper Wuhan Evening News reported
 
Apologies if this one's has already posted here, I read it last night in Ripley's Believe It Or Not ! - Encyclopedia Of The Bizzare (ISBN 1- 57912-399-6)

'John Martin of Sarasota, Florida, had his head so severely mangled in an elevator accident that it was necessary to remove both his eyes. Yet he went on to build this astonishing house -car (note that the flowers in the window boxes are real!) in which he and his wife toured the country.'

Sadly I can't find an online picture of it.
 
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Hong Kong escalator malfunction injures dozens
2 hours ago

Dozens of people were injured when an escalator at a Hong Kong shopping centre malfunctioned.

A spokesperson for the Langham Place centre said the escalator had passed a recent safety inspection.

It has asked the maintenance company to investigate the cause of the accident.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-39397849

Vid at link.
 
More than 20 people were hurt, some seriously, when an escalator ran out of control at a Rome metro station.

Footage shared on social media showed people being crushed at the bottom as stairs on the escalator crumpled.

Many of those injured were fans of the visiting Russian football team CSKA Moscow.

One of the fans had a foot partially severed in the crush. At least two others needed surgery for injuries to their legs.

The accident happened before CSKA Moscow's match with Roma in the group stages of the Champions League.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45960093
 
About 15 years back I got my toes caught in one at the top were the moving bit goes into the floor right at the side, I was wearing desert welly’s and it gave my toes quite a nip I was lucky and managed to pull them out, I am much more carful when I use them now.
 
A while ago I was taking the escalator at the train station, when I saw a red puddle at the bottom of it. I figured as I got closed it would turn out to be spilled soda or such. Nope.
Not sure what had gone on there.
 
Xanatic* said:
A while ago I was taking the escalator at the train station, when I saw a red puddle at the bottom of it. I figured as I got closed it would turn out to be spilled soda or such. Nope.
Not sure what had gone on there.
Click to expand...
Probably some misguided person who tried to surf the rail. I saw a young couple do that. The guy did it and got to the bottom OK. The girl fell off and went tumbling down the stairs. She got up OK, but badly bruised.
 
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