The 2018 Rome escalator accident

[Retro]

This Veritasium video explains how the escalator accident in October 2018 in Rome happened when too many football fans got on a downward moving one, along with the fascinating technology behind escalators.

I learned a few things about them here, especially the safety systems, all of which failed in this case, but why did they fail?

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[Hitcore]

The guy in the video explains it really well, along with the visualizations and graphs. But what a hell of a scary ride it must have been for those who stood on the escalator when it went haywire. Not to mention the two dozen people who got (seriously) injured. My understanding of escalators is a lot better now. And I will avoid standing on downwards going escalators if it is really full, even considering the safety features. Not every escalator is up to date.



In my hometown there is this (partially) wooden one, for example. It is the Maastunnel escalator, that leads to the pedestrian and bicyclists tunnel. The tunnel was opened in the 1940s and the escalator is still original! I've stood on it many times and there was always something creepy about this thing.