Falls Over the Sides of Escalators Onto Adjacent Open Spaces Are Occurring with Increasing Frequency - An Easy Fix is Available
Many times when I visit department stores, hotels, arenas, and stadiums, it seems rather obvious to me that the presence of an escalator in an open area creates a potentially dangerous situation.
On a recent visit to the Revel Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, I traveled what I considered to be an extensive distance on an escalator placed over a high atrium near the entrance. The escalator was seemingly suspended in air. I hate to admit it but I experienced a sense of spatial disorientation and vertigo while riding the same.
Open space, fall research has revealed that the balustrade of a standard escalator is not always high enough to act as a protective guardrail, and many times, escalator falls over the sides have occurred in stadiums, shopping malls, or hotels.
If we examine stadium or hotel environments, many times people may have had a drink or two and become disoriented and can plunge over the balustrade or moving rail onto the floor below. In stadiums or sports arenas, escalators are often crowded with people not exhibiting the safest of behavior. In one sports stadium fatal fall from an escalator, a gentleman was traveling to the upper level of the stadium with several friends when he stumbled and fell over the side 18 to 25 feet onto another person sustaining a fatal head injury.
