Chinese province halts use of all escalators after fatality as family of victim demand answers
Hubei government orders suspension of all machines built by Suzhou firm
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 28 July, 2015, 2:30pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 29 July, 2015, 1:49am
Nectar Gan [email protected]
The investigation into the tragedy is continuing. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The Hubei government has ordered the suspension of all escalators made by the company that produced the machine that malfunctioned and killed a woman, as the victim’s relatives called for answers into the tragedy.
Xiang Liujuan, 30, died in front of her two-year-old son in a Jingzhou mall on Sunday after falling into moving machinery following the collapse of the footplate of an escalator built by Suzhou Shenlong Elevator Company last July.
Rescuers had to cut open the escalator to retrieve Xiang’s body, which had been pulled inside the middle section of the escalator, Wuhan Evening News reported.
The escalator had passed a safety check in March, according to Chen Guanxin, head of the Jingzhou Work Safety Administration and who is charge of the investigation into the accident.
The escalator maker, founded in Suzhou, in Jiangsu province, in 1992, sold escalators and elevators across the mainland and to overseas markets including Russia, Malaysia and Australia, its website said.
The company could not be reached for comment.
The Hubei Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision has called for all buildings in the province to stop operating escalators produced by the company and to carry out immediate safety checks, according to a statement posted on the bureau’s website on Tuesday.
The escalators would not go back into use until the investigation into the accident was complete and measures had been taken to rectify any problems, the statement said.
A still from a surveillance camera at the mall shows staff trying in vain to pull victim Xiang Liujuan to safety after she falls into the escalator machinery. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Investigators said they found that the fixings between two cover plates above the escalator’s machinery were loose. They were checking if there was a problem with the structure and materials used to make the plates, or whether poor maintenance of the escalator could have led to the fixings becoming loose.
Xiang was shopping with her husband, Zhang Wei, and their son at the time of the tragedy.
“[My wife and son] were more than halfway up the escalator when [a shop assistant at the top of the escalator] said the escalator had problems, but it was too late,” Zhang was quoted as saying by state broadcaster CCTV. “As she finished the sentence, my wife fell into [the machinery].”
Family members have demanded to know the cause of the accident as soon as possible.
“Now we only want to know the result of the investigation as soon as possible, and to know who should be held responsible,” Xiang’s father was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
“We have no idea at all how the investigation is going and what progress it has made,” Zhang’s uncle added.
Chen said a special investigation team, made up of representatives from the police and Jingzhou’s quality watchdog and work safety administration had been set up to identify the cause of the accident.
However, Chen said he did not know when the investigation would be completed.
