Future Park Rangsit Boosts Safety After Escalator Accident

[webfact]

ACCIDENT

Mall boosts safety after accident

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- A near-fatal accident involving a young girl and an escalator at Future Park in Rangsit has spurred changes at the shopping mall in the north of Bangkok.

The space between all escalators and decks of floors has been sealed to prevent such an incident recurring, a senior employee said yesterday.

Nualphrae Wasunthaphi-chaikul, 12, is in coma, after sustaining severe head injuries. She is in an intensive care unit at Bangkok Hospital Rama IX, after initial treatment at Pathumvej Hospital in Pathum Thani.

The girl, who was going up on an escalator, leant over its glass wall to watch a show but glanced back before her long hair got stuck when the lift neared an upper floor. She tried to pull her head away but her hair was caught and this caused her neck and head to be squeezed. Her mother, who was following her, fainted after seeing what had happened.

The mall's marketing manager, Rattana Anannuphong, said it would be responsible for the girl's treatment costs, and they would seal the space on all escalators by Monday night.

Dr Adisak Phalitpholkarnphim, a child safety regulations expert, said high-standard escalators should deploy an automatic stop when sensors detected objects that obstruct their normal operation, and the speed of steps should be the same with rubber handrails.

"Escalators should not be installed next to or near decks of the upper floor, as this creates a dangerous triangular space.

"Another safety standard is that escalators should not be installed next to walls," said Adisak, director of the Child Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Centre at Ramathibodi Hospital.

There were no laws against installing escalators near or next to the deck of an upper floor, or near or adjacent to walls. There were few cases of such accidents in Thailand, probably because there were no records, he said.

Adisak advised parents with young children to closely accompany them when visiting shopping malls.

-- The Nation 2012-09-11

[BookMan]

"]Escalators should not be installed next to or near decks of the upper floor, as this creates a dangerous triangular space.[/color]

"Another safety standard is that escalators should not be installed next to walls," said Adisak, director of the Child Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Centre at Ramathibodi Hospital.

Seeing that photo makes me blanch.

This poor girl, if safety precautions were followed when the escalators were safely installed to begin with she would not be on a coma now.

Edited September 10, 2012 by BookMan

[theblether]

To be fair to Thailand it's the same the World over......people react after somone has paid a terrible price.

They should try preventative safety management.

All thoughts are still with this young girl, we're willing you the strength to come through.

[pauljones]

I see these dangerous pinch points at many malls, not to mention the ignored fire safety hazards, etc..

Where was the building inspector, job supervisor when this escalator was installed, approved & paid for I wonder?

[asiawatcher]

Recover soon girl. The building code here does not entail safety as demonstrated in many constructions around town. They are just accidents waiting to happen, None more so than MBK.

[Payboy]

How about plexiglass tunnels on all old escalators?

[TwoDogz]

Good on the Future Park for acting as quick as they have, if they have, to fix the problems and offer to cover all medical costs.

Hope that is not an empty promise.

[GentlemanJim]

Mall boosts safety after accident !

TiT.

[TwoDogz]

Mall boosts safety after accident !

TiT.

Better than not at all right ? which is what happens in so many cases here.

[chooka]

Good on the Future Park for acting as quick as they have, if they have, to fix the problems and offer to cover all medical costs.

Hope that is not an empty promise.

I believe that the actual medical costs/compensation would be covered by public liability insurance, so not actually by Future Park but a good public relations exercise by management claiming they will pay.

[Thai at Heart]

To be fair to Thailand it's the same the World over......people react after somone has paid a terrible price.

They should try preventative safety management.

All thoughts are still with this young girl, we're willing you the strength to come through.

Well, of course people react after there is an accident, I think though it is fair to say in many parts of the world, from the very inception of the design to on going audit, there is an enormous raft of legislation and work put into effect all the time to try to mitigate this kind of stuff, other parts of the world, much less so.

Even the manufacturers manuals state that the owner is responsible for installing appropriate guards and safety measures to prevent people getting stuck in pinch points.

[preahko]

Thais do not place the same value on human life as many of us in other countries do...pure and simple. That said, the truly evil among us--like the United States--kill scores of innocent people every day. Just not our own. So I guess we're all just as barbaric as the Thais in the end.

[Tywais]

I would hope that checks would extend to beyond one shopping mall.

[GentlemanJim]

Mall boosts safety after accident !

TiT.

Better than not at all right ? which is what happens in so many cases here.

I completely agree with you, but lets stay unemotional about the safety aspects shall we. Exactly how has the safety measure been carried out?

space between all escalators and decks of floors has been sealed to prevent such an incident recurring,

What have they actually done, and as they have now made the measure public will the Government mandate the safety action at all malls that are currently contravening such a basic safety issue?

There is a Robinsons Mall near me with exactly the same set-up. I have an appointment at mid-day today to see the manager to present him with a photo and report of the incident. I am interested to see what action he will take if any, but have a letter to give him to record the time, date and purpose of the meeting. If there is a similar incident at our mall in the future I will make sure that their inaction is publicly known. The meeting will be amiable, polite and firm. We should all take a more proactive stance towards improving safety, especially those of us who live here with children, it is so easy to observe something we know is 'sub-standard' and ignore it. I have been guilty of procrastinating for too long so intend to do something, no matter how small. From the first time I went up the escalator in our mall when it was opened 18 months ago i noticed the pinch point and have noticed it the hundreds of times I have been up it since, so, my conscience now says I must act today to play my small part at least in preventing another young life being unnecessarily devastated.

We are all clever folks on here, why don't we do something, even a little bit, to improve safety for children. We all took for granted a reasonably safe upbringing, but we only had that because people continually banged their heads against the wall to improve safety when we were children. I have got the entire close family of 10 people completely converted to road safety/seat belts/helmets etc, I know I could do a lot more if I could be bothered to get off my arse and stop procrastinating...so today is day 1 I will let you know later if I get a life time ban from Robinsons

[TwoDogz]

I will let you know later if I get a life time ban from Robinsons

Keep us updated.

Good effort by the way.

[Sayonarax]

Let me guess you posted this sign everywhere and now everything's ok.

[Gone]

Give them a break for god sakes. It wasn't the mall's fault. Yes I feel very sad for the girl but we all know kids can get into all kinds of situations.

When I was 9 I was running like a bat out of h_ell around our house and ran smack into one of the garage walls and cut my head open quite severely. Is it my father's fault for building the house that way or just another kid being naughty?

If this accident didn't happen how many of you would be at Future Park Rangsit protesting that they make changes to their escalators?

I say good on them for acting so fast and being so concerned and helpful to the girl and her family. I hope she gets well fast.

[Payboy]

Let me guess you posted this sign everywhere and now everything's ok.

Most likely this one.

[Ferangled]

A terrible accident but this is a very rare and isolated incident; surely the daily risks of getting long hair caught up in wheels of motorcycles poses a far greater threat to the public? No amount of health & safety legislation will ever stop such random accidents. I'm sure negotiating a round about in Thailand poses far greater risk to ones health than using an escalator...

I recall as a very young boy, falling down an escalator because the emergency stop was activated - I wasn't holding the hand rail, the escalator came to a sudden stop and I fell nearly an entire level but was fortunately caught by a well placed shopper before hitting the metal plate at the bottom. It transpired that the elderly lady at the top regularly hit the stop because she didn't like disembarking a moving elevator!

I also recall an incident as a boy travelling back on the train after a school trip. One of our class decided to stick his head out of the window while we were moving along and with a loud crash, collapsed back into the carriage, blood pouring from his head, unconscious. Fortunately he was ok. To this day I'm not sure what he hit but clearly sticking your head out the window of a moving vehicle isn't conducive to personal safety and that lesson was learned loud and clear by the whole class!

I have been on escalators the world over and many have "pinch points", as by their very nature they traverse from one level to another. The vast majority of people negotiate them without incident, much like the vast majority of people survive crossing roads. I applaud Gentleman Jim's proactive response but in reality you just can't plan for every eventuality. Should we ban stairs because there's a very real risk that someone might trip and fall down them? Or perhaps ban long hair because it may get caught up in machinery, moving parts etc, I'm sure bald people are immune to such daily perils...

Clearly common sense measures to prevent injury and risk to personal safety are advisable but where we do we draw the line? The two biggest cause of accidental deaths, by far, are car crashes and accidental falls - accidental deaths caused by machinery make up a tiny fraction in comparison, c.0.5% of the numbers killed in car crashes annually. Surely in Thailand road safety is a much more pressing concern and should be the number one priority in increasing safety standards? So many daily incidents are so utterly avoidable with proper road safety awareness; a real driving test would be a simple, cost effective way to start.

Wishing the girl a speedy recovery and thoughts are with her family, especially her mum; I can't imagine what she must have gone through watching her own daughter caught up in such an unfortunate accident.

[rotary]

Very sad event for sure

[GentlemanJim]

Mall boosts safety after accident !

TiT.

Better than not at all right ? which is what happens in so many cases here.

I completely agree with you, but lets stay unemotional about the safety aspects shall we. Exactly how has the safety measure been carried out?

space between all escalators and decks of floors has been sealed to prevent such an incident recurring,

What have they actually done, and as they have now made the measure public will the Government mandate the safety action at all malls that are currently contravening such a basic safety issue?

There is a Robinsons Mall near me with exactly the same set-up. I have an appointment at mid-day today to see the manager to present him with a photo and report of the incident. I am interested to see what action he will take if any, but have a letter to give him to record the time, date and purpose of the meeting. If there is a similar incident at our mall in the future I will make sure that their inaction is publicly known. The meeting will be amiable, polite and firm. We should all take a more proactive stance towards improving safety, especially those of us who live here with children, it is so easy to observe something we know is 'sub-standard' and ignore it. I have been guilty of procrastinating for too long so intend to do something, no matter how small. From the first time I went up the escalator in our mall when it was opened 18 months ago i noticed the pinch point and have noticed it the hundreds of times I have been up it since, so, my conscience now says I must act today to play my small part at least in preventing another young life being unnecessarily devastated.

We are all clever folks on here, why don't we do something, even a little bit, to improve safety for children. We all took for granted a reasonably safe upbringing, but we only had that because people continually banged their heads against the wall to improve safety when we were children. I have got the entire close family of 10 people completely converted to road safety/seat belts/helmets etc, I know I could do a lot more if I could be bothered to get off my arse and stop procrastinating...so today is day 1 I will let you know later if I get a life time ban from Robinsons

Well, I am back and not banned from Robinsons. !! Fair play to them, they listened and became very proactive when I showed them the photo and details. They had been sent a memo from HQ already concerning the incident and were due to ponder the situation at a Management meeting tomorrow. To be fair on closer scrutiny the design of their escalator system inside the mall was actually faultless. What was causing the 'pinch point' was the building of an S&P franchise on the lower floor, and the 'ceiling' of their unit was backed up against the escalator. The manager actually stopped the escalator for 5 mins, got an engineer/maintenance guy to discuss it and came up with a plan to cut 30 cm by 2m strip out of the S&P ceiling there bye eradicating the problem completely. The work will take place at night within the next week and the mall engineering team will do it. He said if S&P don't like it then they can pay for a team to take the entire ceiling down! In the interim they have put up a sign at the bottom of the escalator to take care because of the pinch point.

What can I say! I am speechless. I went, I discussed, the Manager was totally onside and brainstormed a plan of action there and then with a maintenance guy and he proposed a solution with a workable time frame! Maybe people here would be more receptive to certain safety issues if we treated them intelligently and gently more often. I will pen a mail to Robinsons' HQ this afternoon expressing my thanks for the willing co-operation of the store manager.

All that said, I agree with ferangled, we cannot legislate for everything, but feel that those things we can legislate for we can/should do something about.

[Gone]

You can't be serious? YOU went and complained and did all that? Why?

[Ferangled]

Well, I am back and not banned from Robinsons. !! Fair play to them, they listened and became very proactive when I showed them the photo and details. They had been sent a memo from HQ already concerning the incident and were due to ponder the situation at a Management meeting tomorrow. To be fair on closer scrutiny the design of their escalator system inside the mall was actually faultless. What was causing the 'pinch point' was the building of an S&P franchise on the lower floor, and the 'ceiling' of their unit was backed up against the escalator. The manager actually stopped the escalator for 5 mins, got an engineer/maintenance guy to discuss it and came up with a plan to cut 30 cm by 2m strip out of the S&P ceiling there bye eradicating the problem completely. The work will take place at night within the next week and the mall engineering team will do it. He said if S&P don't like it then they can pay for a team to take the entire ceiling down! In the interim they have put up a sign at the bottom of the escalator to take care because of the pinch point.

What can I say! I am speechless. I went, I discussed, the Manager was totally onside and brainstormed a plan of action there and then with a maintenance guy and he proposed a solution with a workable time frame! Maybe people here would be more receptive to certain safety issues if we treated them intelligently and gently more often. I will pen a mail to Robinsons' HQ this afternoon expressing my thanks for the willing co-operation of the store manager.

All that said, I agree with ferangled, we cannot legislate for everything, but feel that those things we can legislate for we can/should do something about.

Great, common sense solution and just goes to show that with the right approach and attitude we can all minimise the risks for everyone around us. It's very refreshing to hear of such open minded, reactive management, especially in Thailand and kudos to you for taking it on yourself to actively do your bit to help. If more people got off their backsides and actually did something about the issues that troubled them rather than simply moaning about them, the world would be a much better place.

I suggest we all try similar approaches with the transport police in raising the bar of the Thai driving test. Perhaps to a point where basic road safety awareness and driving skills are mandatory and those driving without licenses are actually actively arrested and prosecuted?! Somehow I don't think they'll be as receptive to constructive criticism but given the recent spate of high profile incidents you never know, maybe the tides are changing...

Seriously though my main, day to day concern here as a parent are the appalling driving standards in this country. I feel like I am putting our lives in the hands of lunatics every time we take to the road. I recently had to take my daughter off the local school bus having nearly been rammed by the driver on my way back from work. Saving 5 mins off his journey evidently more important than the lives of the twenty or so children travelling with him. I confronted him about it the next day and he was totally oblivious as to what I was concerned about; in his view we hadn't crashed so why was I making a problem about it? Mai pen rai...

Sometimes I feel like many Thai motorists are actively trying to commit suicide, throwing themselves lemming-like in front of my moving vehicle at any given opportunity. I've lost count of the many near misses whilst driving here and am amazed that I haven't been involved in a serious accident yet... not wishing to ram my original point home but the same can't be said for my encounters with escalators! I appreciate that the graphic nature of this incident has touched the hearts of many of us and raised awareness of the issue but by the same token I wonder what it will take to raise awareness of road safety here to the point the authorities will take notice and do something about it. Given the numerous graphic incidents the news is plagued with, what are they waiting for?

[masterbiker49]

Mall boosts safety after accident !

TiT.

Better than not at all right ? which is what happens in so many cases here.

I completely agree with you, but lets stay unemotional about the safety aspects shall we. Exactly how has the safety measure been carried out?

space between all escalators and decks of floors has been sealed to prevent such an incident recurring,

What have they actually done, and as they have now made the measure public will the Government mandate the safety action at all malls that are currently contravening such a basic safety issue?

There is a Robinsons Mall near me with exactly the same set-up. I have an appointment at mid-day today to see the manager to present him with a photo and report of the incident. I am interested to see what action he will take if any, but have a letter to give him to record the time, date and purpose of the meeting. If there is a similar incident at our mall in the future I will make sure that their inaction is publicly known. The meeting will be amiable, polite and firm. We should all take a more proactive stance towards improving safety, especially those of us who live here with children, it is so easy to observe something we know is 'sub-standard' and ignore it. I have been guilty of procrastinating for too long so intend to do something, no matter how small. From the first time I went up the escalator in our mall when it was opened 18 months ago i noticed the pinch point and have noticed it the hundreds of times I have been up it since, so, my conscience now says I must act today to play my small part at least in preventing another young life being unnecessarily devastated.

We are all clever folks on here, why don't we do something, even a little bit, to improve safety for children. We all took for granted a reasonably safe upbringing, but we only had that because people continually banged their heads against the wall to improve safety when we were children. I have got the entire close family of 10 people completely converted to road safety/seat belts/helmets etc, I know I could do a lot more if I could be bothered to get off my arse and stop procrastinating...so today is day 1 I will let you know later if I get a life time ban from Robinsons

I tried & tried to get a morror installed in our village at a blind "T" intersection,first it was too expensive,then I offered to pay for it & then was told it was against the traffic laws,the first time anyone in Thailand has worried about traffic laws.Am still trying,2 yrs & counting!!!!!!!!!!

[GentlemanJim]

You can't be serious? YOU went and complained and did all that? Why?

Totally serious, and yes I did. And you know what, it was easy, it has taken in total an hour of my time and I was going there shopping anyway. You ask Why? I did it because I could, because I have children and because as a parent I would be devastated if one of my children's lives were to be wrecked in such a simple to avoid situation. If I had heard in three months that a child had suffered serious head injuries as a result of the pinch point on the escalator in our shopping mall then how could I have lived with the thought of "I knew that would happen". Sometimes the only way to prevent an accident is to break the chain of events. Don't be a link in the chain, if you see something and can do something about it then do it. Try it, it is very liberating!

[GentlemanJim]

I tried & tried to get a morror installed in our village at a blind "T" intersection,first it was too expensive,then I offered to pay for it & then was told it was against the traffic laws,the first time anyone in Thailand has worried about traffic laws.Am still trying,2 yrs & counting!!!!!!!!!!

I empathise with your situation. Have you tried the village head? The local police? Chief of Police? Even the local councillor who may come up for re-election that the villagers would like it and appreciate the safety it may afford them. Stick at it, as one thing is certain, if you don't then nothing will happen. Good luck!

[GentlemanJim]

Great, common sense solution and just goes to show that with the right approach and attitude we can all minimise the risks for everyone around us. It's very refreshing to hear of such open minded, reactive management, especially in Thailand and kudos to you for taking it on yourself to actively do your bit to help. If more people got off their backsides and actually did something about the issues that troubled them rather than simply moaning about them, the world would be a much better place.

I suggest we all try similar approaches with the transport police in raising the bar of the Thai driving test. Perhaps to a point where basic road safety awareness and driving skills are mandatory and those driving without licenses are actually actively arrested and prosecuted?! Somehow I don't think they'll be as receptive to constructive criticism but given the recent spate of high profile incidents you never know, maybe the tides are changing...

Seriously though my main, day to day concern here as a parent are the appalling driving standards in this country. I feel like I am putting our lives in the hands of lunatics every time we take to the road. I recently had to take my daughter off the local school bus having nearly been rammed by the driver on my way back from work. Saving 5 mins off his journey evidently more important than the lives of the twenty or so children travelling with him. I confronted him about it the next day and he was totally oblivious as to what I was concerned about; in his view we hadn't crashed so why was I making a problem about it? Mai pen rai...

Sometimes I feel like many Thai motorists are actively trying to commit suicide, throwing themselves lemming-like in front of my moving vehicle at any given opportunity. I've lost count of the many near misses whilst driving here and am amazed that I haven't been involved in a serious accident yet... not wishing to ram my original point home but the same can't be said for my encounters with escalators! I appreciate that the graphic nature of this incident has touched the hearts of many of us and raised awareness of the issue but by the same token I wonder what it will take to raise awareness of road safety here to the point the authorities will take notice and do something about it. Given the numerous graphic incidents the news is plagued with, what are they waiting for?

I have pondered on these really valid points for some time. It struck me that one potential way to improve part of road safety is to educate through the children Wasn't their a safety campaign somewhere in Europe where the kids at school had a visit from local police who showed them some videos of crash test dummies and talked about how clever it is to be in the back and to be strapped in, also to make sure Mum and Dad are strapped in. The kids all got a badge and went home and hassled their parents, as kids will do. Something definitely needs to be done, I guess the questions are what? and how?

[Tanaka]

How about plexiglass tunnels on all old escalators?

Na, much too expensive.

[TwoDogz]

You can't be serious? YOU went and complained and did all that? Why?

Some 'DO'...some say WHY and <deleted>...guess which club you are in.

[Ferangled]

Great, common sense solution and just goes to show that with the right approach and attitude we can all minimise the risks for everyone around us. It's very refreshing to hear of such open minded, reactive management, especially in Thailand and kudos to you for taking it on yourself to actively do your bit to help. If more people got off their backsides and actually did something about the issues that troubled them rather than simply moaning about them, the world would be a much better place.

I suggest we all try similar approaches with the transport police in raising the bar of the Thai driving test. Perhaps to a point where basic road safety awareness and driving skills are mandatory and those driving without licenses are actually actively arrested and prosecuted?! Somehow I don't think they'll be as receptive to constructive criticism but given the recent spate of high profile incidents you never know, maybe the tides are changing...

Seriously though my main, day to day concern here as a parent are the appalling driving standards in this country. I feel like I am putting our lives in the hands of lunatics every time we take to the road. I recently had to take my daughter off the local school bus having nearly been rammed by the driver on my way back from work. Saving 5 mins off his journey evidently more important than the lives of the twenty or so children travelling with him. I confronted him about it the next day and he was totally oblivious as to what I was concerned about; in his view we hadn't crashed so why was I making a problem about it? Mai pen rai...

Sometimes I feel like many Thai motorists are actively trying to commit suicide, throwing themselves lemming-like in front of my moving vehicle at any given opportunity. I've lost count of the many near misses whilst driving here and am amazed that I haven't been involved in a serious accident yet... not wishing to ram my original point home but the same can't be said for my encounters with escalators! I appreciate that the graphic nature of this incident has touched the hearts of many of us and raised awareness of the issue but by the same token I wonder what it will take to raise awareness of road safety here to the point the authorities will take notice and do something about it. Given the numerous graphic incidents the news is plagued with, what are they waiting for?

I have pondered on these really valid points for some time. It struck me that one potential way to improve part of road safety is to educate through the children Wasn't their a safety campaign somewhere in Europe where the kids at school had a visit from local police who showed them some videos of crash test dummies and talked about how clever it is to be in the back and to be strapped in, also to make sure Mum and Dad are strapped in. The kids all got a badge and went home and hassled their parents, as kids will do. Something definitely needs to be done, I guess the questions are what? and how?

Good idea, I personally believe the "shock em when young" approach works really well.

At 17, as a fresh faced new driver I foolishly got drunk, crashed my car and lost my license. Banned for 12 months. The court offered a reduction to 9 months if you were willing to take a course on the dangers of drinking and drink/ driving. Believe me the videos and factual stories we were subjected to were enough to put anyone off drinking let alone educate them as to the utter selfishness and stupidity of drunk driving.

During one session a middle aged woman in a wheel chair came in as a guest speaker - she'd been paralysed as a result of an accident involving a drunk driver and would never walk again. She was a budding athlete before the accident and her life had been turned upside down. For me that was a very emotional experience, rightly made me feel terrible and really rammed the point home. I'm sure if we'd all been shown similar as children much fewer of my generation would have taken to drink drinking.

That said I think it has to be backed up by good policing and enforcement of the law. I recall another incident as a child, Mum driving us to school with my sister sitting in the front. My sister was messing about searching through her bag and my Mum had asked her repeatedly to put her seatbelt on but she hadn't. We got pulled over by a policeman while stopped at a red light and he absolutely tore into my Mother about the dangers of my sister not wearing a seatbelt, fined her and sent us on our way. My mother in turn tore into my sister and from that day on she wouldn't set off until we were all buckled in! Would that ever happen in Thailand?