Escalator in deadly accident met national safety standard

The producer of the escalator that caused a woman's death in central China's Hubei Province on Sunday morning claimed on Wednesday afternoon that the escalator involved in the tragedy passed a national safety inspection.

A woman died on Sunday morning after falling through a gap that suddenly opened at the top of an operating escalator in a shopping mall in Hubei's Jinzhou City, with horrifying security camera footage of the incident going viral online.

The producer of the escalator, Shenlong Elevator Co., announced at a press conference that the escalator had passed the national inspection and qualified for production licenses.

According to Zhang Jianzhong, chief engineer of the company, the FML08 escalator was assembled by Hubei Defu Electromechanical Equipment Co., Ltd. Hiring a qualified third-party company to assemble the products conforms to national regulations.

Of the 4648 operating FML08 escalators across the country, the elevator involved in Sunday's accident was the first to be responsible for such an incident, said Yuan Qiang, general manager of the company. The company has already launched safety inspections for the escalator model, Yuan said.

The investigation report for Sunday's accident was released earlier Wednesday. It said that the escalator panels were incorrectly designed, and the size of the three panels at the top of the escalator did not match the design.

According to the report, Shenlong should be blamed for the accident.