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Mall escalator swallows man's left leg near Zhongshan Park

By Hu Min, Chen Huizhi and Li Qian | August 2, 2015, Sunday | Online Edition

Program Code: 0909346150805001

A local shopping mall cleaner who got stuck in a running escalator has had the lower part of his left leg amputated.

The accident occurred about 10:22pm on Saturday when the Cloud Nine shopping mall in Zhongshan Park area closed and the cleaner Zhang Shisheng, a 35-year-old man from Anhui Province, was cleaning an escalator running between B2 and B1.

According to a surveillance video, Zhang was standing at the upper part of the escalator, and suddenly the comb plate -- the part between the stationary floor plate and the moving step -- got cracked open, and Zhang's left foot was stuck inside it.

The shopping mall said Zhang stood atop the cleaning tool (which is a mop as shown by the surveillance video) and the clothing of the tool was caught in the gap of staircases due to his stress, leading to the cracking of the comb plate.

It also said a self-protection system was triggered and the escalator stopped operation, though in the video it can be seen that Zhang tried to reach the area where the stop button was located.

Zhang Shisheng, on his hospital bed, said he felt the panel under his feet “trembled” before it suddenly cracked open.

“I fell in , but the escalator didn’t immediately stop,” he said. “It stopped only when I managed to press the control button.”

He was soon pulled out of the escalator and hurried to the hospital. To save his life, doctors carried out an overnight operation to take off the lower part of his left leg.

The Cloud Nine shopping mall said the cleaner did not obey operation rules in cleaning, which led to the incident.

"Cleaners are required to do cleaning at 10:30pm when the escalator stops operation, but he started it about 10 minutes earlier," a manager with the shopping mall's marketing department surnamed Lin told Shanghai Daily.

The mall closes at 10pm, but the escalator runs till 10:30pm for the convenience of passengers because it links the Metro station of Zhongshan Park, Lin said.

Cloud Nine said the escalator experienced an annual check in June, and the expiry date of the check is a year later. It said it has complete maintenance record of the escalator.

The escalator has been suspended operation after the incident.

In the hospital, Zhang also said it was not the first time the panel “trembled” when he was stepping on it during the three months of his work there.

“I was lucky not to fall last time, and I never thought it could come to this,” he said.

“I have told the company that there are professional machines for cleaning the escalators, but I haven’t heard them back.”

Relatives said Zhang has about 10 years of experience working as a cleaner and had once worked for New World Mall, another famous mall in Shanghai.

“He was on that job with a tool safer than just a towel,” said Zhang Shouyong, his father, adding that his son had told him about his complaints to his employer.

Zhang lives in Shanghai with his wife, who’s also a migrant worker. They had a 12-year-old child who’s living in their hometown in Anhui.

Relatives said a colleague has covered the expenses of Zhang’s treatment last night, which cost about 20,000 yuan (US$3,220).

Zhang’s mother-in-law, surnamed Zheng, said they hope his employer will at least cover the cost of the artificial limb that will be indispensable to him, and that they will consider suing the company if it refuses to do it.

“He’s only 35, and he’s likely to be disabled for any job in the future, which will be a great loss to his family,” she said.

Investigation is underway over the cause of the incident, the Changning District Market Supervision Bureau said.
 

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