A viral video of airport escalator hijinks on wheelchairs is making the rounds on social media. It ends in a pileup.
In the footage, a woman wearing a red shirt reaches the top of the escalator, stumbles backward abruptly, and falls onto a man seated in a wheelchair being steadied by two companions. This creates an immediate blockage at the escalator’s landing, creating a domino effect as additional passengers pile into the obstruction.
Several folks have dubbed the woman tumbling a “trust fall,” noting the wheelchair occupant ironically became her unlikely savior.
It’s notable that the crowd didn’t step in to help immediately. No one pressed the obviously visible emergency stop button sooner. It’s the bystander effect where each individual expects someone else to act, combined with privileging documenting the incident for social media rather than acting in the real world.
Now, you’re not actually supposed to take wheelchairs onto an escalator. That’s for safety. Ironically, though, it wasn’t the wheelchair that was the problem here and its occupant saved people from walling all the way down.
Escalators are deceptively hazardous at the bottom and top, with missteps common as people move to and from stationary ground.
It’s worth noting, too, that ‘no wheelchairs on the escalator’ is safety guidance not criminal law. Elevators are provided as an alternative for safety.
And also that escalator passengers are supposed to press the emergency stop buttons in situations like this. Most people don’t realize they’re allowed to!
We talking elevators, eh? Anyone see the United Nations last week… (turns out, it was one of His own staff.)