By Xinming Li, bostonese.com
Jingzhou, Hubei, China, July 31, 2015 — In Jingzhou, Hubei a mother named Xiang Liujuan saves her 3-year-old child’s life while losing her own after a metal panel collapses underneath them after stepping off an escalator in a shopping center this central China province. The horrific scene was captured by the surveillance video .
The video shows at lease three workers at the shopping center knew about the faulty escalator before the fatal accident. They warned Ms. Xiang about the loose panel just as she coming toward the top of the escalator, and that prompted Ms. Xiang to hold up her son that might have helped save her son’s life. Her husband spoke with local media, describing the moment her wife died.
“My son wanted to get on the escalator. There was no warning at the bottom of the escalator,” said the husband while recalling the accident.
Two workers at the shopping center discovered the loose panel on top of the escalator just a few minutes earlier according to the . But they failed to stop the escalator or put a warning sign at the bottom of the escalator.
This fatal escalator accident has triggered intense discussion on escalator safety in Chinese social media, and orders of escalator inspection by local governments. Ironically, Shenlong, the maker of the escalator, was approved for IPO earlier this month.
Ms. Xiang Liujuan is remembered as a loving mother by her friends. “Only a mother can do this for her son while loosing her own life,” said a relative of Ms. Xiang.
Many in China have called enacting a new law named after Ms. Xiang Liujuan for striker escalator/elevator manufacturing and inspection standards.