How People Are Avoiding The Floor Panel Of Escalators After Mum Falls To Death
The fear is real.
By John Lim — 29 Jul 2015, 05:51 PM
If you have been catching up with news, you would know that a Chinese woman was killed last Sunday, 27 July after a panel of an escalator collapsed under her feet
After a four-hour rescue mission at the AZG Mall in central China, firefighters declared Xiang dead. She leaves behind her husband and her 2-year-old son.
With the lack of enforcement on safety regulation and increase corruption, China is prone to such accidents
In 2012, a nine-year-old boy was killed after he got stuck in an escalator at a Beijing department store as horrified shoppers looked on.
In July 2011, a 13-year-old boy was killed and more than 20 others injured when an escalator in a Beijing underground station suddenly reversed direction during the rush hour.
The increasing incidents with escalators have put fear within the hearts of many people, especially mainland Chinese
On 28 July, a video showing some of the innovative ways of avoiding the landing panel of an escalator went viral. The video has been viewed almost 2 million times, with over 500k likes.
The caption reads: 'After the escalator incident, many of us can't step onto escalators in peace now.'
Did you know that fear of escalators is actually a common specific phobia? It's called Escalaphobia
Escalaphobia is a common specific phobia affecting hundreds of thousands of individuals all around the world. The word Escalaphobia comes from Greek escalo meaning ‘to move up/escalators’ and phobos which means ‘deep aversion, dread or fear’.
fearof.netPast negative experiences with escalators are the main trigger of this phobia
A child or an adult might have tripped or fallen down while using one. Shoelaces can easily get caught in escalators leading to accidents, though these are extremely rare. This gives rise to an exaggerated response each time, since the phobic’s brain simply learns to develop the same reaction over and over.
fearof.net