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5 hurt as Thane station escalator ‘moves in reverse gear’

Five people were injured at Thane railway station after an escalator loaded with people malfunctioned on Friday evening. An eyewitness claimed that the escalator started to suddenly move in the reverse direction and an alert passenger hit the emergency button. The railway authorities refuted the “reverse movement” claim.

It was a little before 8 pm that the mishap took place at the escalator on platform 1. “The machine, possibly overloaded, suddenly stopped functioning. Many lost their balance,” said the eyewitness who did not wish to be named. “Before anyone realised it, it started moving in the opposite direction.”

All hell broke loose as loaded passengers started screaming frantically. An alert passenger reached out to the ’emergency’ button at the base of the escalator due to which power supply was switched off. The railway authorities immediately shut the escalator for public use.

One of the five injured is suspected to have suffered an elbow fracture. Officials from the Thane station manager’s office sent the injured people to a medical centre nearby. Three of the injured persons have been identified as Sujit Thakur (31), Tejaswini Mishra (23) and Kuldeep Vare (25). The names of the other two were not available till the time of filing this report.

Commuters blamed the railway administration for “negligence in the regular upkeep of the escalators”. Thane station has eight escalators. “Surprising that an escalator that was installed a few months back has malfunctioned. Are we waiting for a repeat of the Elphinstone Road tragedy before taking corrective action?” said a commuter.

A Central Railway official ruled out the possibility of the escalator moving downwards. The official said that emergency brakes were applied due to handrail slippage-a technical glitch. “Due to the snag, people on the escalator experienced a sudden jerk and two of them fell down,” said the official. “Engineers are at the site to ascertain the reason for the handrail slippage.”
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