Saw an incident here at MidValley. The escalator going up suddenly reversed downward. Panicked, people ran up the escalator, but faster they ran the faster the escalator moved. A few fell off the escalator. Soon the escalator stopped, and people ran up the escalator. Again, the escalator moved downwards. Someone (well, I did) punched the emergency stop button, and the escalator slowed down. Only then I walked up the escalator, slowly. But some others began to run, and the escalator began to move again. Reaching the top, I realized the problem. The escalators motor had been disengaged. I do not know if the escalator was moving upward in the first place (I suspect it wasnt). But in the haste of being the first person reaching the top, some people had ran up the escalator. With a disengaged motor and no brakes on, the momentum impacted from the stomping on the escalator moved the escalator downward. With one person panicking, it infected the rest and everyone stampeded towards their objective. I shouted out to the people to stop running and slowly walk up the escalator, and the escalator slowed down. Lessons learnt - 1. Racing to reach our goals is noble, but we must understand why and how to reach our goals. Seek to understand our environment and what is good for another may not be good for you. 2. Trying to solve a problem without understanding what caused it wont help; you only get to treat the symptoms, not the problem. Take a step back, you will be able to see the cause and the simple solution. 3. When push comes to shove, take a step back. Had the people on the escalator stopped running and let the escalator bring them down, they would not have fell down. After all, what goes up, must go down. 4. I should have been a cop. Latest from MidValley Customer Service, theyre getting the maintenance people to come over to fix it. PS - this is the third emergency situation I managed to get myself into in a single week.
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 07:19:40 +0000