An impressive accident which could have been dramatic.
Wednesday evening, residents of rue Saint-Dizier, located in downtown Nancy, heard a loud “boom” at around 10 p.m.
The reason ?
An escalator weighing around 5 tonnes fell onto parked cars in a construction site accident that was unusual to say the least.
Also read: She gets her shopping cart stuck in the Paris metro escalator: six injured
As revealed by L'Est Républicain, while the transfer of an escalator to a flatbed truck was in progress, one of the construction machines overturned, causing the fall of the escalator which crashed and destroyed two parked vehicles.
In a video shared by the local media, we see the driver of the machine barely having time to extricate himself from his cart just a few seconds before the accident.
🔴Nancy: an escalator falls on cars during a maneuver on rue Saint-Dizier
More info: https://t.co/W4fqL1TFqg pic.twitter.com/vHTY2XcEk8
— L’Est Républicain (@lestrepublicain) January 24, 2024
Fortunately, traffic had been reduced on one lane and the area had been secured during this night operation, making it possible to avoid a human tragedy.
On this video, we can still see passers-by who were a few dozen meters from the intervention.
“The owners of the cars concerned were immediately alerted.
The findings were carried out on site with the company which carried out the operation,” the co-ownership trustee, in charge of the operation, told Lorraine Actu.
According to the latter, an internal investigation is underway within the lifting company to identify possible shortcomings.
Mathieu Klein, the PS mayor of the city, quickly went to the site with the municipal police after the accident.
At 11 p.m., operations were able to resume and the second escalator was removed without incident, while the new escalators are still awaiting delivery.