A fatal accident occurred at the Asari SKI Resort in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan on Sunday (December 28). A five-year-old boy lost consciousness after his arm was caught in an escalator that takes skiers up a slope. He was rushed to the hospital but died.
According to Japanese media reports, local police received a report around 10 a.m. on Sunday that a young boy had been trapped in a ski resort escalator. Rescuers arrived at the scene approximately 40 minutes later and pulled 5-year-old Tobi Goto from the escalator’s confinement, rushing him to the hospital for emergency treatment. Upon arrival at the hospital, the boy was severely injured and unconscious; he was pronounced dead after resuscitation efforts failed.
It is understood that Goto Hito was riding the elevator that connects the parking lot and the ski service center in the ski resort. This equipment is usually called a “magic carpet” and is quite common in ski resorts. It is like a conveyor belt that takes guests uphill.
The boy fell and his right arm became caught in the conveyor belt at the end of the “magic carpet” escalator. Although the escalator was unattended at the time, it was equipped with an emergency stop button. The ski resort’s operations manager said in an interview Sunday night that the escalator’s automatic stop function failed when an object was caught, and it only stopped after the boy’s mother pressed the emergency stop button.
However, during a routine check early Sunday morning, the elevator’s automatic stop function worked normally. The ski resort stated, “We currently do not know whether it is a sensor malfunction or a mechanical failure.”
AloJapan.com