Escalator safety for building owners

Escalators carry large numbers of people with very little supervision, so small defects and poor habits can quickly lead to falls and entrapments. Owners are responsible for keeping escalators maintained, permitted and safe to ride, and for the daily checks, signage and supervision around them. A licensed contractor does the maintenance, and the provincial authority does the mandated inspections.

How escalator injuries happen

Most escalator injuries are falls, not equipment failures. The rest are mostly entrapments, where something is caught between moving and fixed parts. Common causes include:

• Riders losing balance when getting on or off, especially older adults, people carrying bags or pushing strollers, and people looking at phones
• Soft footwear, long clothing, laces or bag straps caught at the sides of the steps or at the comb plate
• Children sitting on steps, playing near the handrail or riding unattended
• Carts, strollers, wheelchairs and luggage on the escalator
• Sudden stops from someone pressing the emergency stop
• Crowding at the landing when the area beyond is blocked
• Defects such as broken comb teeth, damaged steps, handrails moving at a different speed from the steps, and wet or worn landing plates

Regulation and standards

Escalators and moving walks are regulated elevating devices in every province. CSA B44, the Safety code for elevators and escalators, sets technical requirements, and the provincial authority issues operating permits and carries out or authorizes periodic inspections. In Alberta this falls under the Safety Codes Act, in BC under Technical Safety BC and in Ontario under the TSSA. Maintenance must be done by licensed elevating device contractors using certified mechanics, following a maintenance control program for each unit. Check the requirements in your province.

Daily checks by building staff

Before opening and during the day, trained staff can do a simple walk-by check without touching the equipment. Anything abnormal should lead to the escalator being stopped and barricaded, and the contractor called.

• Comb plates intact, with no broken or missing teeth
• Steps level, undamaged and running smoothly without unusual noise or vibration
• Handrails intact and moving at about the same speed as the steps
• Skirt panels and balustrades free of damage, gaps and protruding objects
• Landing plates secure, clean and dry
• Emergency stop buttons visible, unobstructed and with covers intact
• Safety signs present and readable
• Landings and the area beyond clear of displays, queues and stored goods
• Lighting adequate at landings and along the run

Signage and the surrounding area

Required signs and pictograms typically tell riders to hold the handrail, attend children, keep loose clothing clear and not use the escalator with strollers, carts or wheelchairs. Keep them clean and replace damaged ones. Equally important is the space around the escalator:

• Keep landings clear so people can step off and move away without stopping
• Do not place displays, kiosks or advertising that make riders stop or lean
• Provide clearly signed elevators nearby for people who should not use the escalator
• Manage crowds during events so landings do not back up
• Control water and snow tracked in at entrances near escalators

When to stop an escalator

Staff should know where the emergency stop buttons are and when to use them: someone caught, someone fallen on the escalator or a visible defect. They should also know that a sudden stop can cause riders to fall, so it should be used deliberately. Once stopped for a safety reason, the escalator should not be restarted until the cause is understood and, where needed, the contractor has checked it. A stopped escalator should not be used as a staircase unless your contractor and authority confirm that is acceptable for that unit.

Incidents

Record every incident and near miss involving an escalator, including slips and falls with no equipment fault. Many provinces require certain incidents involving elevating devices to be reported to the authority, sometimes within a short time, and may require the unit to be left as is until released. Know the rules in your province before something happens. Patterns in incident records can point to problems with layout, signage or maintenance. Our guide on incident investigation covers how to look into what happened.

A typical case

A shopping centre notices a cluster of falls at the top of one escalator, while the others have very few. The contractor finds no defect in the unit. A closer look at the incident records and the landing shows that a promotional kiosk has been placed a few steps beyond the top comb plate. Riders stepping off slow down to look, the people behind them arrive on the moving steps, and the landing backs up. Several of the falls happened exactly there, mostly to older shoppers carrying bags.

Moving the kiosk well clear of the landing, adding floor markings to keep the run-off area open and placing an elevator sign at the bottom of the escalator reduced the falls. Nothing was wrong with the equipment. The lesson is that escalator safety covers the space around the unit, and incident records are often the first place that shows it.

What to record after an incident

• Date, time, unit and location on the escalator (bottom landing, run, top landing)
• What happened, in the words of the person involved and any witnesses
• Footwear, bags, strollers or carts involved, and whether the person was holding the handrail
• Whether the emergency stop was used, and by whom
• Condition of the comb plates, steps, handrail and landing at the time
• Photos and any video, kept according to your privacy rules
• Whether the incident was reportable, and when and to whom it was reported
• When the unit was returned to service, and who authorized it

Questions to ask your contractor

• When were the comb plates, step demarcation and skirt clearances last checked, and what was found?
• Is the handrail speed checked against the step speed, and how often?
• What are the callbacks for each unit over the past year, and are any faults repeating?
• What is the procedure for restarting after an emergency stop, and who on our staff is trained to do it?
• Are there any open orders from the last provincial inspection?

How ehZee can help

Our elevator and escalator inspections provide an independent review of escalator condition, maintenance records, signage and the surrounding area, help you prepare for the mandated provincial inspection and follow up on its orders with your contractor. For elevators, see elevator maintenance and inspections.

Common questions