Watch: Mall escalator suddenly plummets down: Shoppers left in a pile at foot of the stairs in incident at Hong Kong mall caught on CCTV

Imagine being on a mall escalator that suddenly lurches out of control.

 That’s exactly what happen to shoppers in Hong Kong, leaving a pile of bodies and 17 people injured. CCTV footage caught the incident, which happened at the Mong Kok mall in Langham Place. Initially shoppers can be seen moving up the escalator, as happens every day in malls all over the world. But suddenly the up escalator starts moving rapidly down, throwing some people off the bottom and causing others to fall. The shoppers eventually end up in a pile at the bottom of the stairs. Other shoppers rushed towards them to make sure people were not badly hurt. The incident happened on Saturday, and since then the footage has been viewed thousands of times on social media. One eyewitness said: “I heard people screaming. The escalator was going down but the speed accelerated. “People started to panic and some fell down.”

Science behind setting the speed limits

Dubai: As regular motorists coming across different speed limits, most of us wonder why a particular road has a certain speed limit and how the authorities might have decided on having a certain maximum speed for a road.

Here, we bring you the science behind the speed limits and road designs.

How speed limits are set

1. “Speed limits are set by using a number of different factors and criteria such as the type of road, geometric design and in some cases existing vehicle speeds (percentiles such as mean or 85th). They are not randomly selected or determined by the number of lanes alone,” said Phil Clarke, principal consultant (road safety and incident management) at Traffic Research Laboratory.

2. “Various factors are considered to set the speed limits on the roads. The design of roads is done based on the road hierarchy developed during the planning stage. However, the actual posted speed is set lower than the design speed to ensure safe flow of traffic. The other practice to decide the posted speed of the existing road is using the method of the 85th percentile speed. A speed study survey is undertaken for the road where a new speed limit has to be posted. Based on the surveys, 85th percentile speed is estimated — this is the speed where 85 per cent of the vehicles drive,” said Nadeem Shakir, technical director, transport planning at Aurecon, an engineers consulting firm. Speeds are established using international best practices but adapted to local conditions.

Key factors involved in setting speed limits

Design classification of the road (expressway, arterial, collector or local)

Number of lanes on the road

Historical traffic volumes on the road

Cross roads and intersection spacing

Intersection controls (signal, roundabout etc)

Accessibility requirements

Geographical location (urban or suburban, CBD or non CBD)

Community typology (residential, industrial etc)

Accident Data

Type of road surface pavement

Pedestrian activities

Cyclist movements

Frontage and spacing from the on-street activities

Public Realm and Landscape requirements

How roads are designed

According to international best practices, prior to the design of a new road, the role that road will play in the road network and the desired speed of traffic on the road are established. The road is then designed to an appropriate design speed for the intended speed limit.

“The preliminary speed limit for the new roads is decided at the planning stage when the road network hierarchy is developed for a new master plan. The balance between mobility and accessibility is maintained to create the road hierarchy. Higher speed roads provide more capacity required for citywide mobility while lower speed roads are used for the safer accessibility within the communities,” said Shakir.

The first step involved during the planning process, according to Shakir, is to estimate the travel demand generated by any development using the trip generation rates.

“This demand is catered with the supply of multi-level hierarchical road network. The capacity for each road varies with the speed. A 120 kmph road can offer a capacity of up to 2,000 vehicles per lane, a 60-80 kmph arterial can offer a capacity of 1,200-1,500 vehicles per lane, while a 20-30 kmph local road can offer a capacity of about 550 vehicles per lane,”

Driver hits the pedestrains while performing stunts

Abu Dhabi: A 19-year-old driver who hit a pedestrian while pulling dangerous stunts in his vehicle has been arrested, Abu Dhabi Police announced on Wednesday.

The man who was driving a car with no number plate was trying to show off to a group of people in front of a school in Al Shamkha area on Tuesday when he lost control and swerved on to the pavement, hitting a man in the process. He also filmed a clip of the incident and posted it on social media.

Lieutenant Colonel Mohsin Al Mansouri, Head of Traffic and Investigation Section at Abu Dhabi Police Traffic Department, warned that youth who pull reckless stunts with their vehicles, especially during unstable weather, will be prosecuted. He added that such vehicles will be impounded.

Abu Dhabi Police called on parents to offer guidance to their children about the dangers of reckless driving and urged them to follow the rules.

SHARJAH TODDLER FALLS TO DEATH FROM 11TH FLOOR

Sharjah: Deaths of people falling from Sharjah residential towers in recent years seems to continue, with another death yesterday, despite attempts by authorities to stem the trend of deadly falls from unlocked windows and open balconies.

In the most recent fatality, a three-year-old Saudi girl fell to her death from the eleventh floor of a building on Jamal Abdul Nasser street in Sharjah after midnight on Saturday, a Sharjah Police official told Gulf News on Sunday.

The girl, identified as G.B.Y., climbed on a chair next to a window, slipped and fell through, the police said.

Sharjah police attributed the girl’s death to negligence.

The girl’s mother found the window of the living room open and her daughter missing. She then looked out of the window and saw her daughter lying motionless on the ground below and people gathering around her.

Police received a call at 1am reporting the incident and paramedics moved to the scene of the incident and found the girl already dead.

The girl had died on the spot and her body was taken to Al Qassimi hospital around 1.35am then forwarded to a forensic laboratory. Al Buhairah police station is investigating the case. Police said they will summon the parents for questioning.

Police investigation revealed that the girl climbed on a chair while family members were busy and did not notice the girl. Sharjah Police have repeatedly warned parents not to leave their children unattended at home and to instruct housemaids to keep a close watch on them.

Also, police have launched campaigns urging parents not to leave furniture items under windows or on balconies.

On Sunday, the police again urged the public to regularly lock windows and to place aluminium barriers to prevent children from falling.

Mother killed confronting thief at home

Fujairah : A 39-year-old woman was stabbed to death when she tried to prevent a thief from entering her house.

Her 11-year-old daughter, 9-year-old son, and 29-year-old housemaid, who also sustained stab wounds, were rushed to hospital, where their condition is stated to be serious.

Major General Mohammad Ahmad Bin Ganem Al Kaabi, Commander-In-Chief of Fujairah Police, told Gulf News that police received a call on Thursday at 3.30am reporting the incident.

The police immediately dispatched a team to the house where it found that the family members had sustained serious injuries in the attack. The assailant was identified as a 23-year-old Pakistani national.

A medical team rushed the injured family members to hospital, where the mother was pronounced dead on arrival.

The suspect was arrested within half an hour of the crime.

Sources told Gulf News that the woman who died is the wife of Emirati Dr Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Academic Vice Assistant Chancellor of Branch Affairs, at Sharjah University, Khor Fakkan branch. The victim worked as teacher in a Fujairah school. She was Jordanian. Her husband was outside the country when the incident took place. Funeral prayers will held on Thursday after Isha prayer at Omar Bin Al Khatab Mosque in Khor Fakkan.

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Al Kaabi denounced the heinous crime, saying such incidents were alien to Emirati society, and wished the injured family members a full recovery.

He also praised the efforts of the police in identifying the assailant and tracking him down in quick time.

Dubai Authorities arrested a woman in Sharjah

Dubai: Authorities arrested a woman in Sharjah for offering unlicensed cosmetic treatments that contained fatal and unidentified chemicals.

The Asian woman was caught red handed after the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Interior and Sharjah Police arranged a decoy client to request for cosmetic treatment at a Sharjah hotel.

"We received a number of complaints against an unlicensed woman who carried out cosmetic procedures for Gulf women, who were mainly tourists,” said Dr Amin Hussain Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for Public Health Policy and Licensing Sector at the UAE Ministry of Health, who was quoted in Emarat Al Youm.

An investigation was launch and authorities discovered that large amounts of money was transferred to the bank account of the suspect’s husband, who owned the illegal business, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Health.

Authorities then arranged for a Gulf woman to pose as a client and book an appointment with the suspect at a hotel in Sharjah.

The Arabic daily also reported that a large amount of money was transferred in advance to the suspect’s bank account.

The suspect then laid out a large quantity of needs and injections that contained unidentified chemicals, and confessed that she was expecting a new shipment of products from Singapore soon.

Dr Al Amiri warned the public not to fall for deceptive ads that claim to offer cheap, easy cosmetic procedures and not to arrange for house calls from cosmeticians without receiving prior approval from the Ministry of Health. 

Dubai: Drivers will be fined Dh400 for each passenger who is found without a seatbelt

Dubai: Drivers will be fined Dh400 for each passenger who is found without a seatbelt inside the vehicle, a senior official told Gulf News on Saturday.

General Mohammad Saif Al Zafein, head of the UAE Federal Traffic Council, said that even if the if the driver is wearing his seatbelt, he can be fined if other passengers on the back seats are not wearing seatbelts.

“The fine is Dh400 for each passenger not wearing a seatbelt, so if the driver is wearing a seatbelt and other three passengers are not wearing it, then he needs to pay Dh1,200 in total for the three passengers, with four traffic points. Drivers are responsible for ensuring that passengers are using the seatbelt,” General Al Zafein said.

The new regulations, covering a comprehensive range of traffic discipline issues and violations, will be implemented on the first of July, according to General Al Zafein.

Officially signed by Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, the new regulations cover multiple violations, the penalties for which include heavy fines, black points, and impounding of vehicles.

Gen Al Zafein said that the new rules will restrict short people and children below 10 years of age from sitting in the front passenger seat given that the seatbelt can choke the person.

“Children under 10 and every person who his less than 145 cm in height will be banned from sitting on the passenger front seat. Officers can fine the driver Dh400. If the person is taller than 145 cm, then he needs to show any document showing his height or he can complain against the fine with the traffic department,” he said.

He added that appropriate child car seats must be used for all children under the age of four. Lack of child safety seats for children up to four years of age will invite a Dh400 fine and four black points.

Official statistics show that 725 people died in traffic accidents in the UAE last year and the new traffic law will help to reduce the number of death on the roads, Gen. Al Zafein said. “We want to reach a figure of 3 deaths for every 100,000 people in the UAE. This law will help us in reaching our target for safer and better roads,”