TOKYO - A woman in her 80s died on Wednesday after her neck became trapped under the handrail at the bottom of an escalator at a supermarket in Tokyo, police said, in the latest accident of its kind in recent months.
Security video from the store in Nishitokyo, in western Tokyo, shows the woman falling as she attempts to lift the walker she was using as she approaches the bottom of the escalator. Her neck then became trapped between the underside of the handrail and the floor.
The store operator, OK Corp, said in a statement that it was cooperating fully with the police, and offered its condolences. The escalator was newly installed for the store’s opening in March, and no issues were found with the installation or with how it was inspected, it said.
The accident follows an incident in March in the JR Mito Station, northeast of Tokyo, in which a man in his 70s died from suffocation after his suit jacket became ensnared in an escalator handrail.
From 2010 to May 2023, a total of 54 escalator-related accidents, some involving serious injury or death, were reported by municipal authorities and other sources to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.