A DESIGN flaw was found in the escalator which “swallowed up” a woman in Jingzhou City in Central China’s Hubei Province, according to China Quality Daily, a newspaper run by China’s top quality watchdog, Shanghai Daily reported.

    The accident occurred Sunday morning in the Anliang department store. Xiang Liujuan, 30, fell through a loose panel on the end of the ascending escalator. At the moment, she pushed her 2-year-old son to safety, but she was dragged into the machinery. She was dead when firefighters managed to cut open the escalator shaft about four hours later.

    It revealed the ill-considered design by the escalator maker Suzhou Shenlong Elevator Co. Ltd., in which panels are easy to get loose and up.

    Also, the size of the panels involved in the accident didn’t meet the requirement, showing Shenlong’s poor quality management.

    The department store should take responsibility as well, the investigation team found.

    The store staff had discovered that the panel was loose five minutes before the accident, but they hadn’t stopped the escalator for repairs. Due to a lack of emergency training, shop attendants at the scene weren’t aware of the urgency to stop the escalator immediately.

    For the maintenance unit, Hubei Defu Electo-Mechanical Equipment Co. Ltd., it also failed to regulate its quality control system, the investigation team found.(SD-Agencies)