Posted on 07/04/2010 5:17:22 AM PDT by sodpoodle
The escalator is currently not in use, confirmed Macy's spokeswoman Elina Kazan.
Wooden escalators have been in operation at the store since 1927.
Two other children have had fingers chopped off by Macy's escalators in recent years.
A four-year-old girl had her right index finger sliced off Oct. 16, 2005, when she tripped at the top step while riding with her father to the third floor. And a two-year-old boy had his left thumb partially severed Dec. 24, 2006, as he rode up to the fourth floor.
"I'm going to try my best to make them remove them and put in better escalators," said Gell-Tejada.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Historic asset my fanny. If it slices off kids fingers over and over it’s got to go.
Or maybe it's just a poorly written story.
The wooden escalator is almost 100 years’ old. My suggestion to immobilize it and convert it to a stationary staircase would eliminate the risk to children and perhaps cell phone distracted adults.
As Bernard has noted - the problem with the escalator has only emerged in the past few years. What has changed? The equipment or the customers?
Look what they’re gonna try to get rid of at Macy’s...
The pit bull of escalators?
oh fer cryin’ out loud
“When the first incident occurred, Macys should have provided warnings that parents with small children use the elevators.”
I agree.
As I pointed out, it could also be bad reporting. Just because the article writer didn’t mention any previous accidents doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. It does seem amazing that the machine could run for 80 years without incident and then suddenly have 3 accidents in less than 10 years.
ANY escalator is dangerous. You should see the things that repairmen find in the pit, shoes, packages.......that grid at the bottom or top will remove toes if you don’t step on it correctly.
First, they took our common sense. Then they took our Constitution.
I don’t think we know if this is a recent problem or not. The story doesn’t say, and my bet is only Macy’s and past victims would know that, Macy’s isn’t going to admit it to a reporter from FOX calling them and the reporter doesn’t know the victims names to call them either.
In tort law you take the victim as you find them under most state law. Example is the “glass jaw.” If you assault someone and they happen to have unusually weak bones . . . you are liable for the damaage you do, pain and suffering etc, even if an ordinary person would not be injured. Even if the customers protection of their children has changed, the change is probably in the perception of the safety of the escalators, since modern escalators don’t chop off children’s fingers over and over again. And Macy’s is obligated to create a safe environment for their customers, particularly children who are less able to protect themselves.
I loved that video! LOL
:)
Still, someone could be injured on a escalator - any style of escalator - in various ways I would assume. Children use these as amusement park rides all the time. Please, please, please, Parents, monitor your children and use common sense.
Where to begin. Have you watched parents with children on escalators? Do you see the idiot parents tell their kids NOT to drag/slide their fingers near the handrail? I heard it constantly as a kid in the 50's. This goes right along with idiot parents that now want warning labels on hot dogs and popcorn as choking hazards. Oh and don't use a screwdriver near your eye.
They also could have had an attendent at the elevator warning people with children
And don’t use your electric hair dryer while you’re in the bathtub.
Lucky kid, it could have been worse!
People on the right naturally jump to the defense of corporations because of things like the hot coffee law suit against McDonalds and excesses like that. They sometimes lose sight of the fact that safety improvements in products occur all the time, are good, tort law in part drives that, and people can be culpable where (as it appears in this case) there is an unsafe piece of equipment, they have reason to know it’s unsafe etc. Basically, remember that tort law is in the Anglo/American legal tradition and plays an important and vital function. Corporations can be wrong . . . my bet is they get sued less often than they injure or rip off people (just going by my experience . . . half the crap I buy seems to have some problem or another with it — I have a coffee carafe on a new coffee maker that acts like a dribble cup — no kidding — Mr. Coffee marketed a carafe you can’t pour from without dribbling).
Jury trial might show something different at Macy’s, that the escalator is as safe as any other, but we don’t know that here on FR until an expert in escalators that knows the Macy’s escalator chimes in.
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