Singapore — An escalator incident on Sunday (Dec 22) in Northpoint City mall resulted in four people sustaining injuries, three of whom were senior citizens.
According to the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), those injured were taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
Two of them had head injuries, which were fortunately minor ones, The New Paper (TNP) reported.
The incident occurred at about 5.30 pm that day. Three elderly individuals lost their balance while on an ascending escalator in the South Wing of the mall. The Chinese evening newspaper Shin Min Daily News reported that the escalator had malfunctioned.
When the three elderly individuals fell on the escalator, members of the public stopped it by pushing the emergency button. They and mall staff then rendered first aid to those injured and watched over them until the arrival of paramedics.
TNP quoted a mall spokesperson as saying: “Security personnel and service staff on-site attended to the shoppers and administered first-aid treatment to their injuries.
“Arrangements were made by the staff for the group of shoppers to receive further medical assistance, and they were taken to a nearby hospital shortly after.”
After the incident, the escalator was examined for any malfunction. It was found to be in good working order and cleared for use by the relevant authorities. It was restarted by 9.15 pm.
This is the second incident involving a mall escalator in the last month.
In early December, blogger mum Priscilla, who writes for punggolbabies.com, shared the story of an escalator step at the Waterway Point mall in Punggol, which dislodged in front of her and her baby as they were getting on it.
The fear of what could have happened to her and her baby caused Priscilla to write about the incident, which occurred on Nov 9.
“With an infant in my carrier, we heard loud clanking sounds before the steps popped up right before my eyes. I was just a step away from that dislodged step.”
She had the presence of mind to stay calm and to hold her child, while asking the people behind her on the escalator to move back upwards.
AsiaOne reports that a witness to the incident on Nov 29 heard a lot of noise from the escalators all of a sudden and then saw a woman with a baby in her arms on the steps. The witness said it was a good thing that someone had activated the emergency stop button.
A Waterway Point spokesman said: “In this particular case, our investigation showed that the wheels on a pram that was used on the escalator got caught and wedged between the escalator steps. This caused the steps to be unable to retract normally into the escalator pit. The steps thus dislodged and this triggered the safety mechanism to stop the escalator from operating.” -/TISG
Blogger recounts horror of Waterway Point escalator dislodging in front of her and her baby
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