Escalators can be very dangerous machines. Apparently they can eat up appendages and even crocs too! No not the reptilian kind, but the shoe.
I’ve been meaning to buy Crocs for my kids, but now I’m not so sure anymore after reading horror stories about escalators gobbling up these lightweight rubber thingies, like this account by Daphne Osena-Paez (do check out her Flickr).
As we were going down Sophia’s left shoe (pink crocs) got caught on the side of the escalator. None of us knew what was happening. Soph was yelling. We thought she was just excited about something she was seeing while going down. It happened so fast. I looked down and saw that her shoe was being EATEN by the crack between the escalator and side foot rail. She was screaming. I saw the little pink croc being gobbled up. It was one of those slow-motion moments. I didn’t know what was happening but I still grabbed her foot and carried her down to the landing. Call it mother’s instincts. Her croc and socks (thank God she was wearing socks) got left behind in the escalator.
Or maybe it’s the combination of Crocs + escalators that can be deadly. Perhaps it’s really the escalators. Any loose material (such as strings and shoelaces), or even any soft and pliable footwear (such as flip flops) can get caught in between escalator steps and teeth. I’ve had experience before where my daughter’s pants bottom almost got caught in escalator teeth because they had those stupid drawstrings.
Apparently, this is not an isolated case (check here, here, and here for some stories, among others).
Maybe it’s time to rethink escalator technology.
In case of crocs use stairs.
10 comments
Whoa! Thanks for alerting me. Bought crocs for my kids but they don’t frequent malls anyway. 🙂 In that case, we’d be extra careful – keep kids away from the escalators.
Heck, as you have said, this can happen with shoelaces – kids are very much prone to having laces undone. ARGH!
Rom, racecar drivers usually have shoes that come with both laces and velcro. They make sure to tuck in their laces inside the velcro (or inside the shoe’s tongue or wherever convenient) so they don’t get wrapped around the pedals in case of emergency. I think that might be a good thing to do, especially with kids’ shoes.
I’ve seen those punkista with extra wide bell bottom pants that sometimes doing extra job as floor polisher and never heard any news that they get caught in escalator. i guess the culprit here probably is the escalator not the clog. btw.. have you seen any Pinoy politicians wearing this clog in public??
Interesting and timely subject, hope anyone with little kids in tow reads it and gives some thoughts no matter what the kids are wearing.
Just out of curiosity, where the little girl’s shoes actually Crocs:
http://www.crocs.com/home.jsp
or were they one of those cheap knock offs I see in Hypermarket and other discount stores?
I have two pair of ‘real” Crocs … took my dear wife a month to convince me to buy them before our move to the Philippines, and they do cost a _lot_ more than the imitations you see here in suburban Manila.
But there’s a reason the knock-off’s cost less. If you hold a real Croc in your hand or one of Mr. Henry Sy’s barat look alikes you’ll see that the imitation shoes resemble well chewed bubble gum in comparison to the real article.
I’m not big on brand names … reason I didn’t buy the Crocs for so long to begin with … but in this case, especially for the feet of little ones, it seems to be a case of you get what you pay for.
Now can anyone tell me why my asawa’s cooking blog (The Unofficial Cook) is getting dozens of queries per month about “Edible Croc Shoes”, “Can I eat Crocs”, atbp? Has someone started the rumor that you can bring your kids home from shopping, take off the Crocs and flavor your pancit with them (the Crocs, not the kids, LoL)?
it’s not the brand. soft slippers are prone to accidents like these especially on escalators.
Princess Diana died riding a Mercedes Benz, so is Benz a dangerous car?
Hi. I just want to share a horrible experience my wife had involving an escalator deflector brush. A deflector brush is a long continuous brush made of stiff bristles running up the sides of the escalator just above the step level. This is designed supposedly to help deflect garments, shoes, and other items away from the gap between the moving steps and the skirt board. However, the opposite happened in our case. We were on our way down from one level to the next using an escalator when all of a sudden the child in front of us lost his balance and fell down. I could see that the child’s footwear (looking like a rubber clog) and his right foot was somehow stuck somewhere near the skirt board. I tried to help the child to get up but all of a sudden my wife, who was standing behind me on the escalator, screamed in pain and when I turned around, to my shock and horror I saw that her right foot was trapped between the deflector brush and the skirt board!!! The deflector brush had come loose from the side skirt forming an “V” opening where my wife’s right foot was wedged tightly. All the while, the escalator was descending and my wife naturally was moving down the same direction while her right foot remained firmly stuck at the point where the loosened end of the deflector brush was still attached to the skirt board. This motion twisted her ankle while the metallic part of the deflector brush and the screws used to fasten it to the skirt board was cutting through her flesh like a knife slicing with each agonizing movement!
At the last moment, I firmly grabbed the loose-end of the deflector brush and yanked hard until it broke up! Needless to say, my wife suffered multiple lacerations on her right lower leg and a sprained right ankle. Miraculously, the child only suffered minor scratches but there was a pinch mark on his right rubber clog. I am not saying that the clog has something to do with it but I have heard a lot of similar stories already.
Crocs are great for just about everything! For travel and vacation… they slip on and off through security check. You will not stink up an airplane when you remove them during a long flight.
Yes,to some point i agree.I think it’s not about the shoes but how the situation goes.The best way i guess is to make sure you keep your eyes with your little angels whatever they wear or wherever they go.
Another accident happened in Level 4, Annex of SM Nort Edsa today. Good that the child wasnt hurt but the escalatorvteeth made of plastic was grossly damaged and the sandal was left hooked into it.
SM secured the place after, i forgot to take the picture.
Crocs is very comfortable in my feet. I don’t think that it may cause me trouble in any escalators.