Escalators Aren’t As Safe As You Might Think

When it comes to getting up and down floors, many of us see escalators as a nice compromise;  safer than stairs, where people can fall, but with the efficiency of elevators, which can get stuck, or which can suddenly jerk us up or down and injure us.

But as a recent lawsuit shows, escalators, when they malfunction, can be horrendously dangerous.

Why is it so Dangerous?

We don’t give much thought to how many moving parts an escalator has, and the necessity that those parts move in some sort of synchronicity. We also don’t think about how many small gaps there are—for example, gaps between the handrail and the floor/stairs, or gaps between the stairs themselves, or gaps where the stairs flatten out when they reach the top or bottom of the escalators.

All of those gaps are potential hazards, especially for small hands and feet.

Lawsuit Alleges Gruesome Injury

According to a recent lawsuit, this is exactly what happened to a three year old girl who apparently couldn’t keep her balance on the escalators. She did what you would expect a young child to do: she sat down on the stairs. But the lawsuit alleges that there was a gap between the side handrail, and the stairs that the girl was sitting on.

Her hand became lodged between the stairs and the side rail, and she lost her fingers.

Although the actual handrail often moves in harmony with the floor, the actual structure on the side of the stairs is often stationary. That means that the girls’ fingers were lodged between a moving floor and a stationary side rail.

Safety Features

Most modern escalators are equipped with sensors that can detect an object (like a small body part) which is lodged in or caught in a mechanism of the escalator. It appears that this one had such safety features but they either didn’t work or didn’t trigger.

The family also alleges that vital evidence to prove their case was lost or destroyed, when the property owner simply turned the escalator back on after the accident. As such, the family says it lost the opportunity to investigate the scene, or to see the escalator in the position that it was at the time of the incident.

Who is Liable?

Escalator cases can have a number of possible defendants. In some cases, the product itself is defective, making it a product liability lawsuit. If the defect is caused by improper servicing or maintenance, the property owner as well as any third party maintenance company may also be liable.

Victim Gets Blamed

Often, especially when it comes to small kids, liable defendants will blame the victims or the parents of the victims, for allowing kids to play on escalators, or put hands and feet places that they shouldn’t be. This also happens when people are injured trying to walk the opposite direction that the escalator is going.

Stairway, escalator, or elevator injury? Call our Tampa personal injury lawyers for help and to schedule a consultation today for help with your case.

Source:

click2houston.com/news/local/2024/10/18/h-e-b-escalator-company-facing-lawsuit-after-3-year-old-child-loses-4-fingers-in-accident/