My family and I were killing time on the 2nd floor of Promenade, Greenhills Shopping Center last night. We were excited to watch Thor and bought tickets for the 10pm screening.
Suddenly, we heard a crashing sound, metallic, long and loud and people were screaming and crowding around the sides of the 2nd floor as everyone tried to see what was going on. It took me several seconds to squeeze my way into the crowd to see what caused the frightful sound when I saw a long metallic part of the escalator’s left side (going down) that seemed to have been ripped off from its position and it dangled wildly across the escalator’s width. An opening allowed me to get a good view of the sight below. I took my digicam out and started taking pictures.
A lady who must have been one of those coming down the escalator as the accident occurred suffered some minor injuries. She was carefully placed on a soft seat beside the escalator where a cafe was and people tended to her. From what I could see, she had some bloody scratches but nothing more. Thank goodness!
I am more scared of riding elevators than I am of escalators maybe because elevators make me claustrophobic. I feel safer with escalators. However, I sometimes don’t hold the railings coming down escalators.
After googling for escalator incidents in Manila and realizing that there have been other incidents in the past, I now feel convicted for being careless when taking the escalator.
Let’s all follow these safety practices when riding escalators (this includes tips I saw in this article):
- Always hold the railings and look straight ahead. It steadies you as you go up or down and in the event of an abrupt stop, will help you from losing your balance. And please, NO TEXTING while going up or down an escalator.
- Small children must ALWAYS be accompanied by an adult on escalators and preferably, held by the hand. Watch where children place their hands and feet as you are going up or down. Because they are a lot smaller, they can more easily get caught in the openings.
- Take care when taking that first step onto the escalator steps. If possible, try to place your foot squarely in the center of one step, not near the dividing lines between steps.
- If you are wearing soft, bendable shoes, look carefully when stepping as these shoes tend to get caught in the cracks of the escalator. If you are wearing shoes with laces, make sure these are securely tied and the laces are not too long that they could get caught in the escalator’s gears.
- Don’t stand on the raised sides of the escalator. Your foot can get caught in the openings.
- Take note of the red emergency button at the bottom and top of the escalator. In case of an emergency, press that.
Hopefully, after this incident, the management of Greenhills Shopping Center will ensure this never happens again. I cannot imagine what injuries could have happened if young children, pregnant women or senior citizens were caught in the escalator at the time of the accident.
Some local escalator incidents I found on the web:
1. Mechanical defect blamed for accident at MRT station
2. Crocs shoes in an escalator accident
3. Sorry Crocs
oh my how scary!
its a good thing the lady was not injured seriously. your tips are great. i remember when my cousin was a little girl, she was wearing jeans that were a little too long, she stood by the side of the step (where there are now yellow markers often and the “brush” thing at the side of the escalator) and her pants got caught in the side! as in all the way going down from the top she was stuck, buti nalang at the last minute my lola was able to pry the fabric away from where it was caught! dangerous talaga.
@Ria – Yes, I was very relieved the lady was not hurt bad. But I really hope that this is an eye-opener for the establishment which is supposed to be an upscale one. Safety of people is a priority.