According to numerous Australian news sources, a three-year old boy fell on an escalator at Bankstown Shopping Centre, causing him to lose three fingers when they apparently became jammed in the escalator’s moving parts.
Read the full story by the Sydney Morning Herald, published December 21, 2012.
Although circumstances around the injury remain unclear, the description provided by the Sydney Morning Herald suggest that the young boy’s fingers were perhaps caught between the steps as the steps collapsed together at the destination landing. Another possibility is that the toddler fell as he approached the destination landing, and perhaps fell in such a way that his fingers were entrapped by a missing or damaged comb plate.
Modern escalators are equipped with safety devices that would normally prevent either scenario from causing serious injuries. For example, if the boy’s fingers were trapped in the comb plate, a comb plate safety switch would normally detect that a foreign object (such as the boy’s fingers) were trapped in the comb plate, causing the comb plate to rise, and stopping the escalator. However, because a toddler’s fingers are particularly delicate, it is plausible that the safety devices, if they were present, were not activated because even a small amount of force would still cause severe trauma.
We will publish updates on this story should they become available.