Article 35 -Hazards & Dangers of Using an Escalator

Introduction of Escalator Accidents

Escalators are inseparable parts of our daily life. While they are convenient and helpful, especially in the modern time, you must use them carefully in order to experience a safe ride from one building floor to another. However, in many cases hazards and dangers of using escalators are inevitable. Even though the majority of people are afraid of using elevators, escalators' hazards are much more serious than elevators.

Millions of people around the world are being injured or killed because of escalators’ malfunction or breakdown or simply because of hopping carelessly on the escalators. Statistics show a dozen thousands of people getting injured and dying due to escalator accidents every year. Not only may the escalator-related incidents cause injuries, but they could also lead to trauma and phobia. However, with the increase in the size of the world's population, the necessity of building large numbers of escalators to provide faster and more convenient forms of transportation is obvious.   

The most vulnerable people exposed to dangers concerning escalators are children and elderlies. Since children are not fully aware of their environment and are instinctively curious to find out about their surroundings, and the elderly because of their disability in controlling their balance or generally in using the escalators. Nevertheless, Being aware of the hazards and taking safety precautions would be useful for passengers and their children, and the elderly in order to avoid risks and dangers and have a safe ride on escalators. 

As for most common risks, one can face during riding an escalator, we can point out to cases such as passenger’s imbalance which further leads to falling off the step and injury, entrapment of fingers, shoes, bags or a piece of clothing between the steps or between the steps and the skirt panel, or other mechanical problems with the escalator’s own functioning which lead to passenger injury. Therefore, the ways of assessing such hazards and how they are dealt with are highly important.

Dangers of Using an Escalator

Escalator-related significant hazards are divided into following categories:

• Mechanical Hazards
• Fire Hazards
• Falling and Slipping Hazards
• Radiation hazards
• electric hazards
• Hazards due to break-up during operation
• Hazards due to neglecting ergonomic principles in machinery design
• Hazards due to the failure of control circuit
• Hazards specific for this type of machine
• Seismic hazards