Another small child’s foot has been mangled by the combination of the especially-grippy Crocs clogs and a moving escalator, according to WSBTV:
“There’s no reason this should have happened to my daughter,” said Alison Pregliasco, Lexi’s mother. “She was holding onto the rail…I heard her screaming and tried to pull her foot out and it wouldn’t come out and the escalator just kept going down. And, I just started screaming at the top of my lungs, ‘Somebody stop this thing, somebody stop this thing. We have to make it stop.’”
Pregliasco said it took 15 minutes to get her daughter’s right foot out of the escalator. EMTs took the child to the hospital, where doctors put pins in her foot and performed surgery to clean bones and remove contaminated skin.
“Three broken toes, two pretty severely broken, the other is just a hairline fracture,” said Pregliasco. “The toe was severed down to the bone and they called it a ‘dirty wound’ because they had escalator grease in there.”
Crocs is currently being sued over a similar incident. The company responded to that lawsuit by saying that they “take escalator safety seriously.”
The CPSC recently issued a warning about “some shoes” causing more risk of entrapment on escalators than others, but were careful not to specify which brand of shoes they were talking about.
CPSC is aware of 77 entrapment incidents since January 2006, with about half resulting in injury. All but two of the incidents involved popular soft-sided flexible clogs and slides.
Girl, 3, Injured On Airport Escalator [WSBTV](Thanks, Ryan!)
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People are retarded. Why should it be Croc’s fault that some people are idiotic parents? My wife works next to the escalators in a department store and is constantly telling me stories about the incredibly stupid stuff some parents do. She had to stop one couple last week because they were trying to take a push cart up the escalator with the baby carrier (containing newborn baby) just sitting sideways on the top, not strapped down or secured or anything. She told them there was an elevator nearby and they still wanted to do it. So she finally just told them they can’t and they went to the elevator. But then later found out someone saw some morons coming back down the escalator with a baby carrier balanced on top of their cart!!!
Another little anecdote my wife told me about the escalators at her work…. is how much business the second floor looses when the escalator is down, you know, when it turns into a regular set of stairs. They aren’t blocked off or anything, they just don’t automatically transport people’s fat asses twenty feet in elevation.
jeez, enough of this already.
would people PLUHHHLEAZZE stop having children?
@zurvan2: Good point. And it’s not just shoes that are getting caught, but scarves too! This CBS News I-Team report demonstrates just how dangerous escalators can be and what stores can do to prevent escalator injuries.
Remind your kids of the 3 S’s (of escalator safety):
Stand Still
Stand Steady
Stand Clear
Or have them watch this short PSA:
Of course the 3 S’s will take on an entirely new meaning as they get older: “Remember, before going out or after waking up: Shit, Shower and Shave!
I guess I could see how a foot could get caught on the escalator if it was going down and the child was facing backwards, with the tip of her shoe touching the stair-thing behind her.
It couldn’t have been a closed-toe Croc, because it wouldn’t fit…unless the spacing between the steps was unusually large?
Maybe it affects Crocs more because they’re flexible and strong? A harder material wouldn’t deform enough to get sucked into the escalator…and they’re strong enough that they don’t break away?
Very weird.
@stuartny: I mostly have to agree with the “absurd” comment. There was no indication anywhere that they were “misbehaving” or otherwise “irresponsible” — to the contrary, the article mentions holding onto the rail (which most people don’t even do). It’s not a far stretch to say that they weren’t, say, goofing off on the escalator and purposely trying to get stuck.
But this is the new attitude of The Consumerist: Commenters Bite Back, I guess.
(I keep ranting on this because I hope that, maybe, we can bring back the thoughtful atmosphere of the old one instead of the FUCK THE ARTICLE IT’S ALL THE VICTIM’S FAULT attitude that is here now)
I just love where America is going…it’s no longer find the root cause, just who to blame, who’s fault is it, who’s ass do I get to sue so I can get my lottery winnings er…I mean settlement.
It’s not the escalator manufacturer’s fault, there are warnings all over those things. Should there be? No, those things look plenty menacing enough to where I was pretty terrified my feet would get eaten by one way back in the seventies before Americans made farting in someone’s general direction litigious thereby making it necessary to put big yellow and red warning signs everywhere (still surprised toothpicks don’t have ‘em).
What kind of place are we living in where everything needs a disclaimer to protect from lawsuits. I marvel at some of the disclaimers on products because you know they’re probably there because someone didn’t have the common sense to realize that they probably shouldn’t drink a whole bottle of anti-bacterial hand soap, pina colada scented or not.
…your honor, no where on that chainsaw was it listed that it should not be used to trim a hangnail resulting in my client’s grievous bodily harm.
How about this, watch your kids maybe, pay attention especially on moving metal stairs with freaking teeth on every step and especially at the end… (ANY METAL, MOVING MECHANICAL OBJECT IS DANGEROUS, PAY ATTENTION)
Oops, meant to conclude with it’s a combination of errors, dangerous escalator, strange rubber shoes, lack of attention. I just get tired of lawsuit this lawsuit that, every little thing that happens to an American makes them think their gravy train just came in and it’s pretty sad.
@full.tang.halo: I love you.
@Rachacha: LOL! I nearly coughed my lunch up when I read the Jetsons reference!
Obviously the inattentive parent’s fault. Like others have said here, my parents always taught me to take a BIG step at the end when the escalator met with the floor, lest you get sucked in…
As Brodie said, kids have to fear and respect the escalator.