Japan: Five-year-old boy dies after getting caught in ski travelator

Officials spent 40 minutes dismantling the travelator to free him, but he was later pronounced dead.

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On Sunday morning Hinata Goto was about to step off the travelator at a Hokkaido resort's ski slopes when he fell down and his right arm became trapped in the machinery, Japanese media reported citing police.

The travelator was equipped with a safety mechanism, but it failed to activate. The machine only halted when the boy's mother hit the emergency stop button.

Rescue workers spent 40 minutes dismantling part of the travelator to free the boy, who by then had fallen unconscious. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Staff at the Asarigawa Onsen Ski Resort in Otaru said that the travelator's safety mechanism, which was designed to immediately halt operations if it detected that an object was trapped in the machinery, had worked earlier in the day.