A five-year-old boy has died after getting trapped inside a moving ski escalator in front of his horrified family.
Hinata Goto’s right arm was left stuck inside the travellator for 40 minutes as rescuers were forced to completely dismantle the machine, as the child slowly lost consciousness.
Goto had been out skiing with his family at the Asarigawa Onsen Ski Resort in Otaru – located in Japan’s ski capital of Hokkaido – on Sunday when he attempted to step on the escalator.
The young boy then fell near the exit of the machine as his right arm became trapped in the escalator belt’s turning section, police said.
The machine continued to rotate for several seconds until Goto’s distraught mother managed to slam the emergency stop button.
Emergency services raced to the scene, and firefighters attempted to release him from the belt at around 10am.
They were forced to dismantle an entire section of the escalator to finally release the kindergarten student who had fallen unconscious during the desperate rescue attempt.
Once released, Goto was rushed to the hospital, where he was tragically pronounced dead a short time later.
Investigations have opened up over the tragic accident, with officials probing why the travellator didn’t automatically stop when Goto was first trapped.
Following the incident, police said the machine is equipped with a safety mechanism that had worked earlier in the day but failed to activate on this occasion.
The travellator was installed just six years ago and sits under 100ft in length. It is 24in wide, has no handrails on either side, and is used to connect the resort’s car park to the ski slopes.
According to Japanese local media, visitors have previously voiced concerns over the machine.
One regular skier told Asahi Shimbun: ‘Even as an adult, there are times when I think, “It’s a little scary”.’
A representative of Asarigawa Onsen Ski Resort apologised for the incident and vowed to take action to prevent any such tragedy from happening again.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
