5-year-old boy trapped in Hokkaido ski resort walkway died of suffocation

SAPPORO – A five-year-old boy who died after

getting trapped in a moving walkway

at a ski resort in Hokkaido, northern Japan, over the weekend was suffocated, local police said on Dec 30.

Hinata Goto, a preschooler from Sapporo, died as a result of his clothing tightening around his neck after his right arm was caught in the travelator at the ski resort in neighbouring Otaru at around 10am local time (9am Singapore time) on Dec 28, according to the police.

He was trying to get off the autowalk, which connects the facility’s parking lot and ski slope, when the accident occurred. Rescuers pulled him out about 45 minutes later, but he was confirmed dead at a hospital.

Officials at the resort have told Kyodo News that the walkway’s emergency stop function failed when the child became trapped, as did the stop button that his mother pressed.

The function, designed to stop the travelator automatically if a foreign object gets caught, had worked during a routine inspection earlier in the day, according to the officials. KYODO NEWS

JapanAccidentsChildren and youth