My husband works in elevator/escalator construction and repair. Most people view escalators as perfectly safe. They are not. The guys are always going to to repair escalators and are picking out bits of toes, and fingers which get cut off. Parents constantly let their children play around these things and whenever one of the repair guys cautions the parents he would get met with anger by the parents. I did not let my kids on escalators until they were over five years old and even now, I monitor all the time where their toes and fingers are and I constantly speak to them about being safe while they are on them. What do you all think those brushes on the sides of the escalator are for????? If the average person knew what the repairman's family knew, they wouldn't blame the shoes or the shoe company.

Seriously.. $7million? does no one else think that's obscene? As some of the other commenters have noted, not all shoes are safe.. heck, if you look at MOST shoes today they're probably not safe.

Keeping your kids safe on an escalator is the parent's job!

Her foot could have just as easily slipped out of a any shoe by Nike or Reebok, or been caught barefoot in the escalator..

It's maddening that a decent company, making a product people want (that I actually think are horribly ugly) is going to be dragged through the courts because the parents are irresponsible..

This was also posted on Gothamist.

Yes indeed, no one wants to be responsibile for their own bad parenting, but everyone will take the money. And the really sad thing -- Croc's WILL pay these people some money just to make this go away and guess who gets to pay Croc's insurance company back -- BINGO -- you silly people who buy those ugly things.

Perhaps an advocate for the child should sue the mother for being negligent.

Perhaps people wearing shoes who get their foot stuck should sue to. I mean those pesky shoe strings could get caught in an escalator pretty easy.

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The problem with the escalators (and moving sidewalks) is that the platform moves while the sides are stationary. If they were to design a wide belt on the sides that moves with the platform, there would be no speed differential and nothing for soft shoes or toes to grab against.

Interesting views from all of you who blame the parents. Maybe they are at fault, maybe not. However, my wife and I were quietly standing with our children last night whilst riding down the escalator. They were behaving and standing still. Each of us had a hand and everything seemed fine until my daughter screemed as loud as I have ever heard from a child and her right foot (with a pair of pinks crocs on) suddenly was torn backwards and her foot along with shoe proceeded to be essentially eating by the escalator. A broken big toe, dislocated toes, skin peeled from the bottom of her toes and 2 large lacerations across the top of her foot. A terrible mess. However, I can ensure you that we could not have watched her any closer. Whether it is the escalator or the crocs fault we are investigating. However, you should keep your comments about bad parenting to yourself and maybe offer an opinion after you and your child go through what my family did last night!!!!!! Not seeking to sue by the way only encouraging you to shut your trap!

Many people love to walk barefoot aroind the house as I do; however, breaking five toes over 15 years by hitting the edged of the bed and furniture convinced me to buy a pair of Crocs in 2006.

Voila! No more broken toes despite multiple run-ins with beds and furniture and the feeling of being almost barefoot.

Crocs shoes do have a protective benefit that few people talk about, especially self-serving lawyers.

Response to comment #20. WAKE UP YUPPIE. The escalator steps are be propelled by an electrical motor the size of the engine in a small car. The step off landing is stationary. Think of a common paper cutter or scissors for that matter. When the moving parts interact with the stationary object, voila the results are similar to your childs injury. Perhaps the educational system in this country should make PHYSICS 101 a mandatory couse of study from pre-kindergarden. You as parent have the responsibility to keep your youngster safe by alerting them and reacting if necessary to ward of potential mishaps/injury to your child much as the owner of dog crosses the street with their pet on a leash to protect that animal from oncoming traffic as most pets are not aware of the imminent danger.

My 8 year old daughter had both of her crocs stuck in the escalator over the summer. Both caught in the toes. My thought at the time was that I should do what I could to help Crocs identify the issue, so I tooks lots of pics and contacted them. I found the response from the customer service manager to be as (if not more so) upsetting than the initial incident. My daughter had the straps flipped to the front and was able to hop out of the Crocs without injury, so I expected a friendly exchange with Crocs.

This escalator had recently been completely overhauled and had a new surface less than 3 months old. My daughter was right behind me and wasn't (for once) messing around. She was just standing there. It was not a side entrapment, but instead the toes of both shoes were caught when the steps flattened out.

Here's Croc's they responded (note the lame attempt to intimidate me into not forwarding it):

Subject: FW: Crocs stuck in escalator-ATTORNEY CLIENT PRIVILEGED PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD

Dear XXXXX,

Thank you for providing us with this information. We are sorry to learn of your daughter's experience wearing Crocs footwear and are thankful that she was not injured. We are committed to the safety of our customers, which is the top priority for our company. Crocs shoes are safe and do not present a hazard. Crocs continues to monitor the use and safety performance of its footwear.

Crocs has launched an escalator safety awareness initiative which includes the implementation of educational hang tags on Crocs products worldwide. We're doing this because Crocs cares about the safety, comfort and satisfaction of consumers and the popularity of our shoes give us an opportunity to educate millions of our customers on the importance of escalator safety.

There is no evidence Crocs are more likely to become entrapped in escalators than other soft-soled shoes. In fact, although tens of millions of pairs of Crocs shoes have been purchased in the U.S. in the last five years, there has been no corresponding increase in the number of reported escalator shoe entrapment injuries, based on our analysis of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission data.

The most important safety factors for escalators and moving walkways are safe rider behavior and proper maintenance of escalators. Our new hang tag messages are designed to address safe riding behavior. We also intend to support organizations that further the cause of proper escalator installation and maintenance. For instance, testing by others, including the CPSC indicates that periodic lubrication of the escalator's side panels can reduce the risk of entrapments.

Consumer safety is a top priority at Crocs, which is why we plan to share escalator safety messages with our customers. You can expect to see the new messages begin to appear on hang tags for Crocs shoes sold worldwide during the next six months.

Thank you for the pictures and information that you provided. You state that your daughter's Crocs shoes were damaged. We would be happy to send you a free replacement pair. Please e-mail me with the size and model/color preference to XXXXX@crocs.com.

We hope that you and your family will continue to be loyal Crocs customers for years to come.

Sincerely,

XXXX XXXX
Customer Service Manager