Strollers on Escalators: Your Laziness Could Kill Your Kid
Posted on 03 20, 2007 under The Manual by Noodad | Comments
Go to any mall these days and you will no doubt witness a travesty. Parents putting their kids lives at risk. The crime occurs when parents take the escalator up and down with their kids strapped into their stroller.
Not taking strollers on an escalator is a rule that should be followed always. Why? Because your kid could get killed or worse, maimed. Say you are holding the stroller tightly and your kid decides to lean forward. You lose your grip and your precious namesake is tumbling down the metal staircase.
Kevin Coffee, a nationally recognized police detective and pioneer of travel safety, writes: "Mangled hands and feet, lacerated tendons, broken or cut off fingers and toes, head injuries – all are documented escalator injuries. Children can fall and get caught when they run, walk, sit or play on moving escalators…When you're shopping with a child in a stroller, always use the elevator. Escalator steps aren't wide enough to accommodate a stroller, so its weight may not be evenly balanced on the step; if the stroller tips over, you and your baby could take a nasty tumble. The stroller may also block your view of the bottom of the escalator, increasing your odds of tripping. And the people behind you can bump into you if you don't get off fast enough."
{mosnooad}I know what you are thinking: "I have full control of the stroller. It is perfectly safe." Isn't that what people say before they drive home drunk? I know the feeling though fellas. I am the mack when it comes to navigating my stroller. (And I welcome any challengers to my assumed title of stroller supremacy.) But no matter how skilled you are, it is the rule and you should obey it.
As far as I am concerned, not obeying this rule is a crime of biblical proportions. If Moses had enough time to chisel the 11th Commandment, he would have etched "thou shalt not endanger your kid because you are a lazy ass."
That's right. I called you a lazy ass. I say that because that is the only possible reason you would use the escalator with a stroller and put your kid in danger. You probably saw the escalator ahead and saw that the elevator was tucked around the corner in Sears seemingly 2 miles away and for some reason you just had to save yourself 3 minutes so you say, "Oh screw it, what the hell?" Those could be your famous last words.
Besides, if the elevator is too far away, take the time to take them out of the stroller, fold the stroller up and hold them down the escalator. An extra step, yes. But one worth taking right?
The problem with this rule is more people don't enforce it. If those rent-a-cops who drive around the parking lots all day spent more time giving out citations by the escalators, people wouldn't do it anymore. Clearly the signs don't deter people from committing this crime. So I have to take matters into my own hands.
So this article is a warning to all you dads out there who go on escalators with their kids strapped into their strollers. If I see you, I will bum rush you. Because you deserve it. And you won't have to worry about cracking your kid's head open: you will need to worry about your own head.
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