Your Worst Escalator Nightmare Just Came True

[warrior1]

Five were injured in New Jersey after an escalator inexplicably reversed course. The footage isn't funny. Not funny at all. Stop laughing!

Correct me if I'm wrong but in this case wouldn't you just turn around and go back down. What I find so funny is people climbing on the railing and those who kept walking back up the escalator.

[TheMadMonk]

1. Perhaps a snapshot of what's wrong with the modern...

world.

I WANT WHAT I WANT.

That was a mass display of sheer bloody minded stupidity.

[LiberalElite]

7. Panicking is contagious eom

[BlueJazz]

2. I saw this on the ABC news and I thought. "Why don't they just stsnd still"

The people act like there's a buzzsaw at the botton of the escalator.
AHHH...we're all going to die !!

[Lokey]

3. Exactly what I thought

Jeesh--these people just panicked...trying to run up it. Now, I could see someone possibly falling if it was a sudden jerk change of direction. I know those darn things will eat your shoe lace and trap ya (found that out when i was a kid). But these people overreacted by far.
wow.

[In_The_Wind]

4. Have you ever been to NJ?

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[Art_from_Ark]

5. One more reason why I hate escalators

[LiberalElite]

6. Well, now I know what to do

if I'm on an escalator and it reverses couse. Just ride it down and find another way up. I had one scary moment years ago when people were still lugging boom boxes around. Ahead of me on the up escalator in NYC's Penn Station was someone with a boom box. The "door" came off the battery compartment and the batteries fell out and started rolling down the escalator steps. Meanwhile of course the escalator kept moving but the idiot is trying to pick up the batteries causing a brief pile-up of people at the top.

[LiberalElite]

8. Here's a quote from someone who was on this escalator - I'd say staying calm under these

circumstances may not have been all that easy:

"Well this morning I’m about 2/3rs of the way up the escalator (and anyone familiar with it knows it is a LONG escalator) - when suddenly the escalator stops and starts moving in reverse. And then it starts picking up speed, until its moving backwards at an incredibly high rate of speed. Faster than I ever thought an escalator could move. Suddenly there are about 20 to 30 people piled up at the bottom of the escalator because people couldn’t get out of the way fast enough."

[Agschmid]

11. I agree...

the whole herd mentality aspect is quite horrifying.

[krispos42]

9. "30 people trapped for hours on broken-down escalator"

Here's an idea... turn around.

Unless you're very close to the top or a very fast runner, you'll take fewer steps riding it back down then trudging up the conventional steps than you will by trying to run up a "down" escalator.

And there's an off chance somebody will hit the e-stop before to long, at which point you can turn around again and simply walk the rest of the way up.

[Yavin4]

10. This escalator, swallow you whole