Escalator Steps: Kids Safety

Child Safety Issue with Parents on the Escalators

Can you imagine yourself tumbling a few body lengths down an incline, covered with pointed jagged metal teeth and ridges? Then your head hits the ground, your skin is bruised, and your world is practically turned upside down. The worst thing is, when you finally stop, a huge weight many times heavier than your body lands on you. This is actually not some hiking or mountain climbing activity, but adults taking their baby strollers plus their babies down an escalator. Such things happen daily. Accidents in the escalator steps happen due to negligence.

Natural Reaction to an Escalator that has Abruptly Stopped

Have you ever been on a moving escalator steps that has stopped all of a sudden? Your knees must have bent to help you immediately stop yourself. You grab on the side rail, and lean back to prepare your body from the sudden forward momentum. Yes, it is not only terrifying, but it also needs you to respond with split second timing.

How to React to an Escalator that has Stopped if you have a Stroller?

If for example, your center of gravity is in front of your feet instead of focusing it  between your feet while you are standing up. Your knees will no longer be responsive as you are bending them back while balancing the stroller. Your hands, being busy  holding the stroller will not hold the side rail in the split second that it takes for you to realize you are falling. If the escalator suddenly stops, the heavy stroller will lurch forward and you will attempt to press down, leap forward and brace yourself (and the baby) from falling forward.

If you are not successful, you are going to keep clutching the stroller at the same time falling flat on your face. You are likely to bring the stroller backwards, slamming the child back into the escalator steps. If the baby is fortunate, the stroller will roll down the escalator steps in this way. But if  the child is unfortunate, the stroller will hit the steps backward and bounces forward, thus sending the child face first down the stairs.

This kind of accident is not uncommon. So, what can you do about i? Sadly, parents going down the escalators with strollers all over them, do happen. Going down backwards needs you to support the stroller upward yet enables you to push the front wheels into the crevice of the escalator step. It  would mean that the center of gravity is securely between the stroller and the fall. This is unlike the escalator diving adult who has the cog behind the stroller, quite possibly contributing to the sudden death of the baby.

Going down backwards also enables you to stand on two stairs, making your position wide and more steady in a linear direction. Even though it will take some balance and coordination to step backward on the escalator, this is actually the most effective way to increase the child safety while having a loaded stroller with you.