Aw man, I'm gonna be that guy who goes kind of off topic, but videos of runaway escalators definitely dispelled the "it can only become stairs" failure mode of escalators for me. Terrifying stuff.

Mitch Hedberg just died too soon after YouTube launched to see it himself.

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Polizeiposaune 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

In the best documented runaway escalator case I'm aware of -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Rome_escalator_accident -- it was determined to be the result of criminally negligent maintenance practices that included the use of zip ties to keep an emergency brake mechanism from engaging.

There was a similar incident this summer at a subway station in Atlanta but there doesn't seem to be a clear root cause published yet. As in Rome, the trigger was too many people on the escalator, but the mechanism is supposed to cope with overload by stopping the escalator.

	▲	rkomorn 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		This reminds me of the recent funicular crash in Lisbon where the initial report said the brakes were applied after the cable disconnected but could not slow down the vehicle. I find all these out of control scenarios terrifying (I suppose I am not alone in this).

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wilg 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I also watched that video but we pretend it's not possible for Mitch

	▲	rkomorn 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I used to pretend it wasn't possible. I still do, but I used to too.