Factors Influencing Escalator-Related Incidents in China: A Systematic Analysis Using ISM-DEMATEL Method

Abstract

Escalator-related incidents (EIs) have recently resulted in serious injuries and even deaths. Given the frequency and severity of EIs, a systematic exploration of factors influencing EIs is critical in order to identify preventive measures. Twenty-two factors influencing EIs were identified by analyzing 213 EI cases in China and related literatures. A combination of the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) methods were utilized to establish a hierarchical structure of the influencing factors and to distinguish cause factors and effect factors. The results show: (i) behavior, emergency plan, safety rules, safety supervision, information exchange, safety culture, and safety education are the most important factors influencing EIs; (ii) safety education is the cause factor imposing the greatest influence on other factors while behavior is the effect factor that is the most influenced; and (iii) the structure of influencing factors has five hierarchies, and factors in the root cause layer are settings and components, safety rules, safety supervision, safety culture, and safety education. Management priority should be given according to the hierarchy level, and the interaction of factors should be considered when taking preventive measures. The corresponding five-layer countermeasures are proposed to reduce escalator-related injuries.

Contributing Factors Affecting the Severity of Metro Escalator Injuries in the Guangzhou Metro, China

“…Although only two moderate injuries are caused by the escalator failure in Guangzhou Metro, it should be noted that the escalator failure, such as sudden stop or reversal of direction, usually results in massive and severe injuries. For example, five people were injured due to escalator reverse malfunction in Ningbo Subway in 2016 [ 16 ].…”

“…To reduce the probabilities of escalator-related injuries, several studies has been conducted to investigate the epidemiology and cause of escalator-related injuries [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. However, most of them focused on commercial escalators and only a few studies analyzed the accidents of metro escalator or heavy-duty escalator [ 2 , 3 , 17 , 18 ], which is designed specifically for transit system usage and substantially different from commercial escalators in terms of structure, configuration and performance [ 19 ].…”

Critical Hazards Identification and Prevention of Cascading Escalator Accidents at Metro Rail Transit Stations

“…However, according to Heinrich’s Law [ 20 ], casualty accidents are not the result of an isolated hazard, but the result of a series of hazards [ 21 , 22 ]. In MRT escalator system, accidents are much more likely to be caused by multiple hazards, rather than a single hazard [ 2 ]. There may be a causal relationship between these hazards; that is, consequent hazards are triggered by causality hazards.…”

“…Accordingly, a combination of the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and Decision Making Trail and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) methods was utilized in [ 2 ] to establish a hierarchical structure of the hazards, considering the four aspects proposed by [ 23 ]. Although this was a big step forward in transferring the research perspective from single hazard analysis to holistic analysis, the interactions between the hazards were determined by experienced experts who understand the inter-relationships and degrees of importance of all hazards.…”

“…The most popular choice of these is riding escalators [ 1 ]. However, escalator accidents comprise the largest percentage of all injuries and deaths happening on special equipment in China [ 2 ] and the Hong Kong metro rail transit (MRT) [ 3 ]. Between 2013 and 2015, there were a total of 950 escalator accidents reported by the Guangzhou MRT [ 4 ].…”