Ever since I was a child, I am absolutely terrified of escalators. Yes, escalators...those moving staircases. I feel much safer in an elevator and I guess I would be more comfortable with the idea of an elevator cable snapping and then falling to my death inside a box than be sucked into the rolling mechanism of the moving staircase.
Did you know 31 people died after a fire that began in the undercarriage of an MH-type Otis escalator in 1987? In 2003, 30 people were injured on an escalator at Coors Field in Denver when it malfunctioned. One of those individuals had his leg amputated. In 2005, a dude in Massachusetts was strangled to death when his sweatshirt was caught in an escalator.
Yup, escalators are scary. The steps look like razor sharp teeth. The handrails are large rubber bands that could snap at any moment. It is easy to get a finger or thumb stuck in those large rubber bands and what happens when you get to the top and your hand is still stuck? It's gonna throw you into the ground and crack your head open.
I wear boots, without laces, all the time because I don't want my laces to get caught.
It requires great athleticism and coordination to step onto a moving staircase without falling flat on your face.
I can remember times trying to get on one as a child and the adult holding my hand had to suspend me in the air with one arm because the other arm was holding something else. Before setting me down, my legs would flail and I would start spinning and I would be screaming. The adult, now upset and telling me to hold still, would eventually drop me onto those razor sharp steps. By this point, the steps were already disappearing into some large claws at the top and everybody knows if you don't jump over those approaching claws, you'll be pulled into the underworld below with the trolls and other goblins. The big, mean troll under the escalator has a name and it is Otis.
Nope, no escalator for me. "Ma'am, will you hold the elevator for me please?"
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