Calgary toddler suffers broken leg after getting caught in escalator
Posted Feb 19, 2018 7:50 pm.
Last Updated Feb 20, 2018 5:20 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RICHMOND, B.C. – A Calgary mom is warning about the dangers of escalators after her two-year-old son was injured while riding one.
The scary incident happened at the Vancouver International Airport.
Andrea Diaczek, her husband, and two-year-old son Julian were killing some time at the airport before their flight back home to Calgary last Friday.
She says she was riding one of the escalators down with her son, his hand in hers when the escalator grabbed a hold of her son’s shoe.
“I heard a little squeak and I just saw the toe of his boot had become entrapped inside of the stair and before I could even really do anything I tried to yank him out and it just sort of sucked in his boot.”
She says she started screaming and the escalator came to a stop.
“He was screaming. I think initially when his toe was stuck and it got run through the side it was just a bit of shock, but then his leg got twisted around backwards,” she says.
“I’d already seen the toe of his boot go through the side and I didn’t even know what was left of his foot. And he was still very much stuck. I wasn’t sure if he was getting any circulation in the bottom part of his leg.”
Diaczek says people nearby rushed to help as she cut her son’s foot free of the boot with scissors someone gave her.
The incident twisted and broke his leg. He also has cuts and swelling but otherwise should be okay.
Diaczek says it was a very scary situation, especially when she was doing ‘all the right things’.
“You’re under that supervision, and you’re holding onto your child, and you’re holding onto the railing, and you’re not fooling around, you know you’re not leaning over and he’s not crawling on it.”
As for the airport, in a statement, they say “We were notified on February 16, 2018 that a customer in our terminal required medical attention following an accident on an escalator. Safety and security is our top priority and at the core of everything we do. We are in contact with the family and are investigating the incident.”
