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When Escalator Breaks, It Turns Stairs (aartaka.me)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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We need resilient systems that fall back to sanity when broken / discriminating. And not whatever.

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[–] 1 point 5 months ago (5 children)

Escalators have brakes to prevent them from moving. If the escalator breakdown causes the brakes to fail, then it can accelerate enough to seriously injure people

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    Sure. But if the brakes have not failed... Then it's safe to use for a reasonable period of time.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (3 children)

    And how do you know that the brakes won't fail?

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Multiple independent braking systems and adequate maintenance.

    A single failure may cause the escalator to stop working, but it takes 3 failures in a row to make it catastrophic. Regular maintenance catches this failures before 3 in a row can occur.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago*

    If you're afraid of this kind of thing, then don't use escalators when they aren't moving, that's fine.

    According to a quick Google search, there are 2-3 escalator related deaths per year in the US. That's not just counting malfunctioning escalators, it also counts morons doing dumb things on escalators (and "within the US" includes every Florida Man out there).

    You can worry about this if you like worrying, but it's probably not worth it.

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