TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Video surfaced on Monday (March 14) of an escalator in a New Taipei City MRT station collapsing, sending about 30 people hurtling backward and causing four of them to suffer minor injuries.
At 10:26 p.m. on Friday (March 11), approximately 30 people were taking the escalator up from the platform of the Bannan (Blue) Line's Xinpu Station. However, the escalator suddenly stopped and began descending rapidly.
On Monday, two surveillance camera videos of the incident were posted on the Facebook group Baofei Commune (爆廢公社). In the video taken from the upper floor, a large group of people can be seen ascending, with one person just managing to step off in time and two others nearly making it to the end but failing to do so as the escalator gives way and sends the passengers plummeting backward.
In the second video, taken from a surveillance camera on the platform, people can be seen streaming downwards as others frantically try to run out of their way. One passenger can be seen hitting the floor with significant force, and many pile on top of each other.
One person suffered a sprained ankle and was transported to a nearby hospital in an ambulance, reported Storm Media. Three others suffered minor bruises but were able to leave the station under their own power.
The Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) stated that it immediately asked manufacturer Otis Elevator Company (Taiwan) Limited to investigate the cause of the accident. It stressed that MRT escalators have a strict maintenance schedule and that the escalator involved had been most recently inspected on March 7.
The TRTC said the manufacturer found that the emergency brakes had not been applied immediately due to an abnormality in a circuit. It requested that the faulty gearbox be sent to the factory for disassembly and inspection and that inspections of other escalators with the same braking equipment begin immediately to ensure no similar faults occur again.
(Facebook, Baofei Commune screenshots)
(Facebook, Baofei Commune screenshots)
