Screaming girl, 6, saved from Primark escalator just in time as Croc gets caught
A six-year-old girl screamed in fear when her Croc shoes got caught on an escalator in Primark - before her quick-thinking mum saved her from a gruesome injury.
Emma Harris had taken her young daughter on a shopping trip to the Trafford Centre in June. They were heading up the escalator towards the children’s department when her daughter let out a “panicked” shriek.
The mum-of-two hadn’t noticed the mechanical stairs “grabbing” her daughter’s shoe, but managed to pull at her right leg to free her, just as the rubber “snapped”.
The 41-year-old from Salford recalled the horror close call that could have ended a lot worse than it did.
The mum was able to pull her young daughter's foot away as the shoe snapped as it was drawn into the escalator (UGC/MEN)Speaking to The Manchester Evening News, she said: "I pulled her leg and the back of the Croc snapped as the escalator was pulling the shoe in. Her foot came out of the back because the rubber snapped, thankfully.
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"The escalator pulled her shoe and within seconds, it was severed through. Had she not have yelled out and been stood next to me, and had the shoe not snapped, freeing her foot, the injury could have been life-changing. If I had not have pulled her leg, I think it would have caused some really bad damage to her foot."
Emma said her daughter was given immediate first aid by Primark staff in the store. She also shared an image of the severed Croc after the incident. It shows a slice mark along the side and a severed sole. But she said that although she escaped unhurt, her daughter has been left 'petrified' of escalators ever since.
"She pulls me backwards out of stores if she sees escalators in them," said Emma, who revealed that thankfully, her daughter suffered only a reddening to her foot, with no cut. She said she has autism and regularly wears Crocs because she doesn't like the feeling of her feet being restricted or enclosed in socks or shoes. The pair were only newly-bought.
"I had not even intended on going in the store on the day," added Emma. "But my sister was in there and we thought we would go and meet her. My daughter was in front of me on the escalator on the step one up from me. It was just as we got to the top, about three or four steps away. She just let out at panicky noise. I could hear the noise of the escalator on the shoe. Because we were so close to getting off, and acting in the moment, we just stepped off in a bit of shock."
Emma said they filled in an incident reporting sheet in the aftermath and a bandage was applied to her daughter's foot. She said she was told in store that 'someone would be in contact with me within 48 hours', but no contact was made. Emma went on to contact Primark directly via the website. She shared Primark's response, some four weeks later, but said: "There has not been much empathy shown."
In an email to her, Primark said: "Firstly, we would like to take this opportunity to apologise to you and your daughter for any distress and inconvenience this incident may have caused your daughter and yourself. Primark work very hard to offer a safe and comfortable environment for both staff and customers at out stores and we have a range of measures in place at each of our stores to prevent such occurrences. Unfortunately, on this occasion, an incident has occurred involving your daughter and one of our escalators."
The email went on to say the circumstances 'have been fully investigated' and 'steps have been taken to avoid this from happening again in the future'. But Emma said what those steps are - or what the results of the investigation were - haven't been communicated to her. She was also offered a £40 Primark e-gift card and a replacement pair of Crocs. "There is no explanation of the reason for the incident and I'm appalled that it has taken this long to receive such a response," Emma added. "The response doesn't really say what steps they have taken."
A Primark spokesperson said: "We are sorry for the experience Ms Harris and her daughter had in our store and colleagues were on hand to offer assistance. The safety of our customers is really important to us. While our investigations found that there was no fault with how the escalator was operating, we would like to apologise that our response after the incident didn't properly address Ms Harris' questions and concerns. We are happy to replace the shoes alongside a gesture of goodwill, and will reach out to the customer directly to address any further concerns."
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