SAPPORO (Japan), Dec 30 (Bernama-Kyodo) — A 5-year-old boy who died after getting trapped in a moving walkway at a ski resort in Hokkaido, northern Japan, over the weekend was suffocated, local police said Tuesday, Kyodo News Agency reported.
Hinata Goto, a preschooler from Sapporo, died as a result of his clothing tightening around his neck after his right arm was caught in the travelator at the ski resort in neighbouring Otaru around 10 a.m. on Sunday, according to the police.
He was trying to get off the autowalk, which connects the facility’s parking lot and ski slope, when the accident occurred. Rescuers pulled him out about 45 minutes later but he was confirmed dead at a hospital.
Officials at the resort have told Kyodo News that the walkway’s emergency stop function failed when the child became trapped, as did the stop button that his mother pressed.
The function, designed to stop the travelator automatically if a foreign object gets caught, had worked during a routine inspection earlier on Monday, according to the officials.
The police are investigating the accident as a possible case of professional negligence resulting in death.
— BERNAMA-KYODO