Five-year-old boy dies after being trapped in travelator
The walkway's emergency stop function did not operate automatically when the child became trapped, prompting his mother to press the stop button.
SAPPORO - A five-year-old boy died after his right arm became trapped in a moving walkway at a resort in northern Japan on Sunday, Kyodo News reported citing local authorities.
Firefighters said they received an emergency call from the boy's mother at about 10 am saying he was trapped on the autowalk in Otaru, Hokkaido.
The victim was identified as Hinata Goto, who lived in Sapporo, a major city neighbouring Otaru.
The boy fell as he was trying to get off the walkway, which connects the facility's parking lot and the ski slope, according to local police and firefighters. The travelator has no handrail.
Officials at the resort told Kyodo News that the walkway's emergency stop function did not operate automatically when the child became trapped, prompting his mother to press the stop button.
The emergency function, designed to automatically stop the travelator if a foreign object becomes caught, had worked during a routine inspection earlier in the day, the officials said.
As staff at the facility were unable to free the boy, emergency workers dismantled part of the equipment to free him, the officials said.
A representative of the resort apologised for the accident and pledged to determine the cause and take measures to prevent a similar incident from happening again.
The police and the ski resort said the conveyor-belt-style walkway, which was installed about six years ago, is around 30 metres long, with a belt width of approximately 60 centimetres.
The ski resort remained open after the accident, while the walkway was shut down.
A couple in their 40s who passed near the site said they heard someone believed to be connected to the boy repeatedly shouting words of encouragement from inside an area cordoned off with blue tarps.
A man in his 70s, who said he often visits the ski resort, said there were several points on the walkway where the slope changes and the belt shakes, adding he himself had stumbled there before and had thought it was dangerous. - BERNAMA-KYODO
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