South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog
Escalators are everywhere – in shopping malls, sports stadiums, office buildings, airports, subways, and many other multi-story structures. Escalators are essentially big conveyor belts designed to carry people up and down floors like a moving staircase. As mechanical devices, they have many components that need to function perfectly in order to maintain safety. But sometimes they don’t, and that can lead to injury.
Serious escalator accidents are uncommon in comparison to other types of injuries, but there are still 10,000 injuries per year caused by escalators that require emergency care.
Examples of real escalator injuries
The majority of accidents on escalators come from falls, both from falling over the handrail to the floor below or falling up or down the escalator for a variety of reasons. Other accidents are caused when an article of clothing or part of the body gets stuck in the mechanism (referred to as entrapment), or when the escalator jerks, stops, speeds up, or reverses direction suddenly. Below are just a few examples of escalator accidents that led to long-term injury or death.
In 2021, a boy sustained serious personal injury when his foot got stuck between the stair and the wall of the escalator in New York. Bystanders had to use a metal rod to bend back the wall enough to free the boy’s foot.
In another 2021 incident, an escalator in Boston suddenly reversed directions at a high speed, causing the people onboard to tumble onto each other and the floor below. Nine people were hospitalized after this incident.
In 2003, a five-year-old girl’s shoe got caught in the comb plate of an escalator. She tried to remove her shoe when her hand also got caught. She had to have three fingers and part of her hand amputated.
In 2000, an elderly woman died due to blunt trauma to her head and trunk after a fall on an escalator at a department store in Ohio.
In 1997, a 37-year-old man died of asphyxiation when his coat became caught between the moving steps and stationary bottom comb in a Washington, D.C. subway.
Malfunctions that cause injuries
Escalator defects or malfunctions that are most common include:
- Missing teeth on the escalator track
- Excessive space between the moving stairs and the comb at the top or bottom
- Excessive space between the moving stairs and the wall of the escalator
- No protective barrier above the escalator wall for taller escalators to prevent falls
- Broken or missing steps
- General malfunction
- Poor maintenance or lack of inspections
- Inherently dangerous design
- Loose or unstable handrails
Do you have a personal injury case?
If you have been injured due to someone else’s negligence in Florida, you have a right to compensation for your injuries. There are a variety of potential directions we can take in a lawsuit involving an escalator accident, including premises liability and product liability.
Premises liability is based on the duty of owners of a location to maintain a safe environment. Product liability is based on the duty that builders, designers, and sellers of a product have to make sure that their product is well designed, made with good materials, and operating properly, and that users have been properly warned about potential dangers.
As a Florida personal injury lawyer, I am committed to helping Florida residents throughout the state receive just and fair compensation for injuries they have sustained due to someone else’s negligence. Contact me today, 24/7, at (954) 448-7288, to see how I can help you. I leave no stone unturned to help my clients receive the compensation they deserve.