In a rapidly urbanizing country still plagued by shoddy construction standards and poor building maintenance, the news of a mother who was killed on a shopping-center escalator spread like wildfire.
BEIJING — The scene can only be described as horrific: On an otherwise unremarkable morning, a woman is riding up a shopping-center escalator in central China with her son. When she reaches the top and begins to disembark, she steps onto a metal footplate covering the machinery. The plate collapses, dropping the woman into the gears. She shoves her child into the arms of two mall employees, and is crushed to death.