A TikTok user has created an animated simulation demonstrating how a woman tragically died on an escalator.
Naima Rharouity, a 47-year-old mother of two, died in January 2014 after a devastating escalator incident at Montreal’s Fabre Metro station. According to CBC News, a Quebec coroner later determined the fatal chain of events began when her head scarf became caught in the escalator, with her coat and hair also getting pulled into the mechanism.
“The woman was strangled by her scarf and her scalp was lacerated by the teeth of the escalator before the machine stopped,” the report concluded.
The TikTok account sebastiank22, which shares true crime and related stories through animation, posted a video illustrating what may have happened to Rharouity.
The clip opens by noting that Naima had taken the escalator in the Montreal Metro station “countless times” before the day she died.
The animation then portrays her head scarf snagging on the escalator’s “sharp metal teeth” as she traveled down.
“At first it was just a gentle tug,” the narrator on the video explained. “But then, the pull grew stronger, and the scarf tightened around her throat.”
Reflecting details described in the coroner’s findings, the video shows her hair becoming entangled as she tried to free the scarf. During the struggle, it is believed she may have lost her footing.
Tragically, ‘her scalp was lacerated by the teeth of the escalator before the machine stopped’.
Emergency help arrived, but Rharouity could not be saved. Police said she was in cardiac arrest when paramedics reached her, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Coroner Paul Dionne said investigators could not determine the precise order of events—whether the scarf became trapped first or whether she fell and the scarf was caught afterward.
CBC News also reported at the time that the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) provided information to the coroner’s office indicating the escalator received regular maintenance.
“However, four incidents involving falls or clothing caught in the stairs have happened since 2012,” the outlet reported.
In the United States, Miller and Hine Law estimates that roughly 17,000 people are injured each year in escalator- and elevator-related accidents combined, with around 30 deaths annually among those incidents.
By comparison, stairs are reported to be responsible for about 2000 deaths each year.