Incident at Suwon Station: Man Standing on One Foot on Escalator Handrail

Man Dancing Ballet While Listening to Music on Earphones, Video Shared on SNS

A man climbed onto the handrail of an escalator at Suwon Station. He precariously balanced on one foot as he descended. When he reached the end of the escalator, he jumped off and landed, a scene captured on video.

On the 4th, a video titled "Yesterday's Suwon Station Legend" was posted on X (Twitter). The poster wrote along with photos and video, "(This man) descended while stepping on the escalator handrail."

A man standing on the handrail of the escalator at Suwon Station.
[Photo by X (Twitter)]

In the video, the man wearing a red and navy checkered shirt performed acrobatics on the handrail, ignoring the crowd packed on the escalator. The man precariously standing on the handrail, which is less than the width of a palm on the steep escalator slope, looked extremely dangerous. If he had fallen from the handrail, it could have led to a serious accident, potentially harming other citizens as well.

The netizen who posted the video explained the situation at the time, saying, "He was listening to music alone with earphones and was so absorbed that he was dancing ballet." The tweet surpassed 60,000 views on the 5th.

Netizens reacted with comments such as, "Won't the escalator break? It looks dangerous for others too, why is he doing that?", "It's a dangerous act," "As expected, Line 1 is terrifying," and "If people knew how the inside structure of an escalator works, they would understand how dangerous such behavior is for fellow passengers."

[Photo by SNS capture]

Meanwhile, the Korea Elevator Safety Agency recommends holding the safety handrail and not walking or running to use escalators safely. They also advise using elevators instead of escalators when carrying strollers or carts.

According to a July announcement by Seoul Metro, 99.6% of escalator accidents in subway stations in Seoul over the past three years were caused by "non-compliance with safety rules," specifically not properly holding the handrail. Specific examples of passenger negligence include ▲walking or running on escalators ▲losing balance and falling on escalators or stairs while intoxicated ▲rushing to board while the doors are closing ▲stepping off quickly while looking at a phone with earphones in when boarding a train.

The agency urged citizens to be cautious, warning that accidents caused by walking or running on escalators and not holding the safety handrail could potentially lead to large-scale chain accidents.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.