Falling Down Escalators

I once saw a programme on the telly about the dangers of escalators and small children. There was this one kid who got his fingers jammed in between the moving steps and they had to get the jaws-of-life to free him and he lost his hand…

Since watching that doco I have always been extra cautious, making sure to nag and do the safety briefing every time we step on one of those contraptions.

Step on carefully…  Hold onto the rail…   Don’t poke your fingers in there…  
Hey stop dancing…! 

Consequently I thought my kids were pretty awesome at Escalator Safety. Years on from watching the doco, not one of my children has lost a finger or toe to a moving staircase.

Perhaps this lulled me into a false sense of security.

Maybe it led to a dangerous level of overconfidence when approaching escalators and a foolish lack of nagging and safety briefings.

So really I can only blame myself for yesterday's incident on St Lukes Foodcourt escalator and the blow to my pride. Ending up on my ass in a heap at the bottom of an escalator after being hit from above by a 25kg child? My own fault.

We were heading back upstairs after getting supplies for the movie we were about to watch.

Ice creams, drinks, popcorn and movie tickets were all clutched in our hands as we headed upstairs. 

Miss Fab was at the head of the procession, rising up the escalator. Scrag came next with me right behind him.

I saw Scrag put one foot on a step, but he kept the other one firmly planted on the floor. As the step carrying his first foot started to move away from him he started to tilt backwards; his second foot was now on a step too but he was straddling three steps and rising higher, tilting further. 
Me, I was right behind him.

Suddenly I knew what was about to happen.

“Noooooooo Scraaaaaagggggg! Hoooooldddd onnnnnnnn!”

Too late.

It was like a slow motion film.

He began to topple backwards into me.

I had my hands full of icecream cones, popcorn and frozen coke.

I was climbing a moving staircase helpless to stop the force of gravity from sending my sturdy child crashing into me at full tilt…

…knocking me backwards down the escalator, ice cream, coke and movie tickets flying through the air…

…and landing in a heap at the bottom.

(Just one more incident to add to the Simoney hall of falling-on-my ass shame)

Thankfully no one was hurt. Thankfully we recovered the movie tickets.

But from now on I am back to being vigilant around escalators.

……..

NOTE: The risk of this particular type of escalator incident was never mentioned in the Documentary about the Dangers of Children on Moving Staircases, but let this be a warning to all of ye!