On the 8th, an up escalator ran in the wrong direction at a subway station near Seoul, the capital of South Korea, injuring 14 people, and police and administrative authorities are investigating the cause.
At around 8:8 a.m. on the 20th, an upward escalator with a length of about 9 meters installed at a subway station in Seongnam, which is adjacent to Seoul, South Korea, suddenly stopped, and immediately after that, it ran in the opposite direction in the downward direction.
In the security camera footage of the scene reported by Korean public broadcaster KBS, you can see people on the escalator falling one after another as if they were folding on top of each other when the reverse direction started.
Fourteen people were injured in the accident, three of whom were hospitalized and receiving treatment.
KBS quoted a person who was at the scene at the time as saying, "I suddenly heard a thump and a sound like a part breaking, and within a second or two, the person at the top collapsed."
A man in his 14s who often uses the station said, "I feel scared because it is a station that I use for commuting, and I need to check how the escalators were inspected."
According to Korean media, this escalator was installed in 2009, and although the inspection in May showed no abnormalities, the device to prevent reverse direction driving was not working properly at the time of the accident.
On June 5, the police will jointly investigate the site with forensic research institutes, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of the Republic of Korea has also stated that it will "thoroughly investigate the inspection method and whether maintenance was appropriate."