Also posted on the North America forum.

September 2008. London – Phoenix. Sky Harbor Airport.

This incident happened as four of us arrived at Sky Harbor airport Phoenix at the start of a 5 week motoring holiday.
With my wife Lin and friends Monica & Dave we passed through immigration around 5PM on September 9th 2008.
In good spirits and for whatever reason three of us and two trolleys rolled on to a long moving walkway. At this point we were behind an Asian lady her trolley and companions. As we arrived at the end of the moving walkway the lady suddenly went down on her back, consequently we all piled into each other in total disarray. Our trolleys spilled over Lin was down on her back, I was spun around and ended up sitting on my overturned trolley. I remember my legs flailing as the walkway continued to move. Total chaos reigned, nobody was able to get to the emergency stop as that was located on the outside of the walkway ?? The scene must have reminiscent of the inside of a tumble drier.
To make matters worse the Asian lady could not crawl off the walkway as her upended trolley was preventing her doing so, at the same time there was a strong chance that her Sari or long hair might be dragged into the mechanism. In fact we were all held there while the floor continued to move beneath us and folks further back were approaching .. After what seemed a lifetime two things happened. The Lady was lifted bodily clear by her husband and Dave who was not on the walkway ran back and hit the emergency button (which was under a plastic slide and I repeat on the outside of side wall )
During this episode there were no airport officials in the area though a little further along the corridor an ‘associate’ enquired if we were OK.
The Asian Lady appeared to be unharmed but shocked, Lin suffered bruising to legs and shins the rest of us just suffered the shock and indignity of it all.
In retrospect we wonder if the lady at the front had forgotten to release the trolley brake at the end of the walkway thus once it hit unyielding floor it stayed put.
Dave reported the incident and also wrote to Sky Harbor but they have not extended the courtesy to even reply.
This incident could have had serious injury repercussion, steps should be taken to ensure that this episode is not repeated.

Dave has passed the matter on to me. I am passing this on as a warning to others but in fairness I am sending a letter with a copy of this posting to the Sky Harbor authority.
The whole thing must be on CC TV somewhere. Who knows Perhaps it will find its way on to Utube.

John - sorry to hear about the misadventure.

This is true of all moving sidewalks . . . anywhere . . . (even escalators for that matter) - which is why I generally avoid them if I can.

Last year I was heading for a flight at Toronto Pearson where I witnessed a similar incident. I was walking towards the terminal and could see the moving walkway on the other side 'delivering' folks to the parking garage. A family pushing a heavily laden cart toppled at the end of the trolley (I assume that the 'parking brake' had been left on and the cart didn't roll as it should have at the end of the moving sidewalk - this jarred the bags and they tumbled down) and the people and carts just kept on coming behind them. A passing flight attendant raced over and started yanking suitcases and tossed them aside with some sort of freakishly superhuman stregnth. She helped these who had toppled down back up and cleared the obstruction before anyone else piled up on top of them.

Generally these devices have an emergency 'off' button located at either end of the device. The ones on Toronto also have some located every 10 feet or so along the moving hand rail. These are great if a) one is handy to where YOU are, and b) you're not in a pile on the moving floor.

I've been in some airports where you are advised to NOT bring the luggage carts on the moving sidewalk.

John, what a scary experience. Like Jerry, I almost never use those moving walkways. Apart from the potential hazards, I figure after (or before) sitting on a plane for an extended period, I'd rather get a little exercise.

To keep the discussion all in one place, I have linked this topic to the North America forum and deleted the duplicate message that you posted there.

- Roz

Good warning! Since some of my bionic joints practically demand that I use moving sidewalks and escalators wherever I can find them, all I can add is: spacing! Leave room between you and the people in front of you. If others pass you and cut in, again try to distance yourself from them. Double or triple the distance on escalators.

Every moving walkway I have ever seen has a sign saying not to bring luggage carts on... guess now I know why!!

I took a cruise with my niece this week, and made her haul her own luggage (she may as well learn now!). I had to teach her how to take it on an escalator, and had to keep reminding her to leave space between us so there was room to handle the suitcase when we got off. Scary how fast things can go wrong

Anne

To the best of our collective memory there was not a 'No trolley' notices by the walkways at Sky Harbor. There is indeed regulation that states that 'electic carts'are not permitted on these facilities. If the Sky harbor authority has the courtesy to answer our letters then perhaps we will find out for sure.

As usual I 'posted' without the the main point !
The use of trolleys on walkways or not..
The real issue with Sky Harbor is:-
what is the point of having an Emergency Stop button on the outside of the walkway sidewall, under a plastic slide cover and impossible to get to once everyone is tipped off their feet
If friend Dave had not operated the button...hey we might still be floundering around on that walkway today.

quote:

Every moving walkway I have ever seen has a sign saying not to bring luggage carts on... guess now I know why!!

Yep, same here. It's probably something we see so often we don't usually notice it.

As to why the emergency button is on the outside --- well the people on the outside are the ones not floundering around on a moving walkway.

Still, all in all, must have been an awful experience.

Marion.... and if there happens to be no one on the outside? ( there were just the 2 at that moment.)I take your point but on such a common convenience I'd like to think that my fate is not purely left to the intervention of passers by.
You are right the experience was indeed 'awful', my wife's shins/legs bore testimony to that and I guess we were lucky to be able to continue with our trip as planned.
regards John

What a terrifying experience.
In a way I understand why the emergency button is on the outside of the walkway. If it is on the inside, what with all the users in a hurry, plus their laden trolleys, it would be very easy for the emergency button to be bumped accidentally, which would produce another whole set of problems.
Emergency buttons on escalators are also on the outside in a stationary place by the floor exits. I learned this when I briefly had a parttime job in a department store when I was in university, and as a lowest-wrung manager had to learn where those buttons were.
One day what I had dreaded happened: someone got stuck between floors, a little like what you described, but with no body pile-up, not yet.
I hurled myself through space to get to the emergency button. In my panic, I just jabbed at every button and, lo and behold, the upward escalator stopped and … went backward (downward)! At least the person became unstuck.
After an eternity, I jabbed at one button that froze the escalator. Most of the users were starting to laugh by then, but one screamed at me for being incompetent; he was right, I was. It was one of the worst moments in my life.

Okay, I have to confess, this happened to my Dad in the Atlanta airport. He and about 6 of his buddies were traveling to a NASCAR race. After landing in Atlanta, they got onto the escalator and were busy talking and not paying attention. When they got to the end, my Dad fell down and all 6 of his friends piled on top of him, just like dominoes. No one was hurt and I guess no one else behind them fell. They all were laughing about it and made for a great memory.

A few years after my dad passed away, my husband, our two sons and I were at the Atlanta airport. As we neared the end of the escalator, we must have all had the same thought because we all started laughing about Grandpa and his "domino adventure."

When I was at the airport in the Bahamas, I had a similar experience. It was VERY frightening. We were on an escalator going down, and had our carry-on luggage with us. This was one of the steepest escalators I have seen, and a child fell at the bottom as he was getting off. Like your experience, all of a sudden people were piled on top of each other, trying to jump out of the way, etc. We were higher on the escalator and it managed to clear out enough before we got to the bottom, but I had visions of times where you hear of people being crushed to death in situations where they are tyring to get out of a burning building, etc. I'm sorry you have not even had the courtesy of a reply from the airport.

When I sent a follow-up letter to the Sky Harbor authorities, I copied it to British Airways as Phoenix is their daily destination from the UK. I have received a reply from them sharing our concern. They have contacted the duty officer at Sky Harbor and assured me that we will get a reply this time. I will keep you posted. J

Well, I am personally swearing off the moving walkways. When I relayed this thread to my daughter, she said, "Now what is the percentage that you will get involved in something like this?" Then I responded with, "Well, what was the percentage that I would run over my leg with my own car?"

She had to agree that for someone as accident-prone as I am, that it might be a good thing for me not to take the moving walkway again.

John, I hope you get a satisfactory response from Sky Harbor. I look forward to your news.

Thanks Earline.
Its the first time that we have encountered anything like this so I would think the chances that the same thing happening to you are minimal.However its certainly worth bearing in mind next time you are on your travels.
regards John.

I have finally received a reply from an official at Sky Harbor. I have also replied to it.
In fairness to them I will endeavor to post the key points of their letter on this forum(new discussion)soon as I can.
Briefly they appear to take comfort in the fact that the walkway emergency button was installed in accordance with certain construction 'regulations'. I have pointed out that despite these 'regulations' the accident actually happened and subsequently we were given no oppertunity to control the situation ourselves. As far as these 'regulations' are concerned the term 'fit for purpose ?' springs readily to mind. More later.

I've seen only a few places where there poles in front of the walkways that are too narrow for carts to pass through. Great idea.

Following is a follow-up post received this morning from John, moved here to keep all information together.

Tourmama

rnrman
Slow Traveler

Posted 02 July 2009 03:29 AM
Further to posting:Moving walkway warning. These are extracts (in inverted commas) from a long awaited reply from Sky Harbor. My comments are in brackets.

‘Your letter dated April 29th 2009 was forwarded to me and a response by British Airways. Phoenix Sky Harbor does not have any record of receiving a previous letter from you’.
(there were three communications: 1 verbal and 1 written from Mr Dear to Sky Harbor: 1 letter correctly addressed to Ms Ostreicher from me who says she did not receive that either….make of that what you will !)

‘The walkways were constructed in accordance with Phoenix Building Construction Code for elevators ASME A17.1 Section 6.2.3.1.
(I don’t care, the regulation failed to stop this potentially serious accident happening and the victims were unable to control the situation: this is not fit for purpose)

‘The location and covers of emergency buttons are placed so that the buttons ar’nt accidently activated causing inadvertant injury. They are set to industry standard supported by our Risk Management section.’
(by this I take it that a sudden stop would off balance users. Ok they may stumble and fall BUT at least the thing would be stationary and not continue to move and tumble users around helplessly as in our case. Further to this there are very many examples of elevator emergency buttons which are placed in various sensible positions and NOT outside the elevator wall out of reach if you are down on the moving floor.)

‘ Sky Harbor has implemented all required safety signage on the floor panels at the entrances of all walkways and voice annunciation to indicate that the use of wheeled vehicles on walkways is prohibited.’
(there was no voice annuciation and as far as signage we three did not see it and nor did trolley users behind and in front of us. Clearly the signs are not high profile enough or were not in the exit corridor that we were using.
After long and tedious flight passengers just grab their cases and want to get out of the Airport at the soonest. Unless a sign is blatant Im afraid it will be missed. I have carefully looked through Sky Harbor regulation and rules online. There is no mention of prohibiting trolleys on walkways…only motorised trolleys)

I have replied to the Sky Harbor authority asking why verbal efforts to report the incident failed to get the attention it deserved at Sky Harbor in 2008 . How could it be that two other written communications fail to reach the authority. Since the emergency buttons are clearly in an impotent position would this addressed to eliminate the chances of a similar accident happening. I wrote on the 6th June with a copy to BA. I am still awaiting a reply. John


John.
www.canyontocanyon.com


{{edited to keep all information in a single thread}}