THREE YEAR OLD'S FINGERS TORN OFF WHEN SHE FELL ON ESCALATOR AT H-E-B, LAWSUIT ALLEGES

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

 

3-year-old’s fingers ‘torn off’ when she fell on escalator at H-E-B, Texas suit says

BY KATE LINDERMAN

OCTOBER 17, 2024 1:59 PM

 

As she rode down an escalator with her parents after leaving a Texas grocery store, a 3-year-old girl from Memphis, Tennessee stumbled and fell onto the moving steps.

 

As she worked to catch her balance, her fingers were “sucked into the escalator down to the palm of her hand,” according a lawsuit filed about the March 30 accident at a Bellaire, Texas H-E-B grocery store.

 

The escalator’s automatic stop didn’t deploy, according to the lawsuit. Four of the toddler’s fingers were “torn off” when her right hand was freed, the complaint said. Only her thumb remained attached.

 

Now, the 3-year-old girl’s parents are suing H-E-B and TK Elevator Corporation, the company responsible for the maintenance of the escalator, for $1 million saying the escalator was “severely undermaintained,” according to the lawsuit filed on Oct. 16.

 

H-E-B and TK Elevator did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Oct. 17.

 

The lawsuit accuses the two corporations of multiple maintenance failures, saying those could have prevented the “tragic” accident.

 

“These failures include the significant gap between the skirt and the step, broken comb teeth at the bottom of the escalator, incorrect comb plates at the bottom of the escalator, and the inoperable skirt switches which would have stopped the escalator as soon as (the toddler’s) fingers got caught instead of allowing them to be sucked in further and to be cut off,” the lawsuit said.

 

A skirt switch is a safety feature on an escalator that automatically stops an escalator if something gets trapped between the moving stairs and the stationary panels, according to Google Patents.

 

Because the machine didn’t stop, the child’s “four fingers were torn off and fell into the bottom of the escalator,” according to the lawsuit.

 

“Her parents had to deal with this sight of their little girl’s fingers gone and her hand bleeding profusely,” according to court documents.

 

First responders were able to recover the girl’s fingers, but a doctor was unable to reattach them, the lawsuit said.

 

“This tragic incident has forever altered the life of a 3-year-old child and her family,” the parents’ attorney Ben Crump said in a news release. “The defendants failed in their basic duty to keep customers safe, and their negligence resulted in a young child losing her fingers in a horrific incident that could have been avoided with proper maintenance. This was completely preventable.”

 

Bellaire is about a 10-mile drive southwest from downtown Houston.