Yes, running on a piece of moving machinery is much safer.
Her children were playing around the escalator. I guess she figured that was a good place for them to play. Unfortunately, her little girl paid the price for her ignorance/indifference.
Yes, and carry scissors. (So you can cut off your clothes if they get caught.)
I hate escalators. As a kid I had this fear of being ‘sucked’ into the grate at the bottom. Now I worry more about getting a shoelace or pant-leg caught in the stair mesh.
I would rather take the stairs then escalators.
Last year when I was out doing some shopping with my mother in law, there was a little girl (maybe 5) playing at the bottom of the escalator in Neiman Marcus. My MIL told the girl to stop as she could get hurt. The kids mother was nearby looking at something then snapped at my MIL telling her not to tell her kid what to do. She just responded back ‘hey I was just concerned about her safety- kids get maimed in escalators ya know!’ and we walked off. The woman looked dumbfounded.
Probably not such a hot idea, I know. But I always want to get off as quickly as possible-I HATE escalators.
(And to be fair, I don’t really “run”, so much as I just walk up like I would a regular staircase-why not?)
WRONG!!!
It depends on the age of the escalator. Newer ones red outside next to the top of the hand rail. Older ones Under the hand rail on the bottom. Some on the inside hear the bottom of the handrail.
Having the stop buttom with easy acess is dangerous. Have you ever been on a down escalator when a kid pushes the stop button? I have, I saw a kid playing around the bottom near the stop button. As he lifted the cover I checked my grip on the hand rail with my right hand. When he hit the stop button I wrenched my back, If I had a weak or no grip on the hand rail I would have been knocked off my feet. A down esclator has no time delay on the break.
Escalators are the most dangerous thing in a store. There are many moving and stationary parts exposed. And parents think nothing of letting their children play on and around them. Our crew maintained 13 stores and in a year we had to investagatge probably 20 accidents. Some mild some bloody.
I have had parents threaten me when I let them know it was dangerous to allow children to play on escalators.
They can never be made safe. Too many moving and stationary parts exposed.
I hope you are kidding. I have had to clean up blood lots of blood of someone running up an escalator.
Oh I see you were kidding. some what.
As I’ve seen it, usually it’s at the bottom, in the position indicated here:
Now for some horror stories,
Most common accident. Kid ridding up or down an escalator with his foot rubbing the the side of the skirt. As the steps approch the landing the shoe gets sucked between the skirt and the step. It will pull the shoe into the escalator until the foot blows out the back. Think about it the foot gets crunched until the pressure is so great the seam in the back blows out. Now an older escalator has skirt safty on the bottom landing but not the top. If the foot gets sucked in on a old up escalator it is not going to stop until it cuts the shoe in half. It use to really up set me when I had to pull some kids shoe.
True story
When I worked for a major department store, in one of the stores an escalator had major problems. The step chain was so streached that in removing steps I would have to pry them out. The upper carriage had bad bearings to the point that the axel uas out of line. This caused the comb plates at the top landing to break. Every week when I was in the store I would have to replace one or two broken comb plates on the top landing.
I go two bids to repair the unit. The main office shot down doing the repair as too expensive. The main office discided to outsourse the elevators and escalators. Three months later I got the word some 5 year old kid in sandles lost two toes on the upper landing. I told the mainteance he need to keep the lawyers away from me or it could cost the company money, lots of money. The service company was only coming in once a month.Exactly.
Brodie: Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don’t hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent - I don’t care which one - but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator.
When I was a kid I was afraid of escalators. I couldn’t articulate why, just that they scared me. I got made fun of a lot. Same with pool drains, too, come to think of it.
On the other hand, I reached adulthood with all my bodyparts intact.
Bottom line is this: if you are a parent, and you have a small child with you, know where your small child is and what he/she is doing at all times.
I feel sorry for the kid! But I don’t feel a bit sorry for the parent who thought it was “OK” to let the kid play near an escalator while she was paying for her purchases! If you are not ready/willing/able to take control of a small child while shopping, then freakin’ don’t go shopping with the kid!
This happened to me when I was about 5. My rubber boot got caught in the escalator at Sears at the Quaker Bridge Mall in Trenton, NJ (bastards!) Tore it right the fuck off my foot. I was afraid of escalators for years.
Joe
Okay, but what’s so bad about running? Those things you mentioned in your other post had nothing to do with running up or down the escalator. As long as you step over the part where the escalator goes in at the top or bottom, you should be fine, no?
You might be more likely to slip and fall running up an escalator than you would walking or standing. If you fell and were winded or still trying to pick yourself up, you might not be able to avoid the dangerous part at the top.
Or as you’re running, your shoelace/jacket edge/whatever gets caught in the equipment, and because you’re running you trip and fall, hurting yourself, and being less able to deal with removing said piece of clothing from the equipment. You’re also more likely to hurt others in the process. What you should do (being an adult and thus able to monitor yourself better than kids) is if you just stand calmly, feet in the middle of the step, keeping loose bits of clothing away from moving parts, one hand on the hand rail, and a careful step off at the end.
Can I at least walk fast? I hate standing there, they’re so slow!
Another one chiming in to say “wtf?” on the parent’s behavior.
Yes, kids will be kids. In a big department store an 8 year old might go wandering off and do something dumb. If they were born to parents that pushed for some general common sense to be made clear to them that dumb thing will probably not get them hurt badly.
But to allow 3 year olds to go playing anywhere where the parent isn’t nearby?
Escalator aside… What if someone just picked the kid up and walked off with them? What if someone hit them with a shopping cart or if some big fat guy just tripped over them? I mean, really… The kid is 3 and any place that has escalators is large enough where the kid should not be left to wander whatsoever.
I’m wondering if Child Protective Services got involved.
I assure you that you should not try this one in London!