It was bound to happen eventually. All popular products must
eventually meet their downfall in the form of consumer safety lawsuits. And so
it is that the footwear company Crocs faces at least two suits for injuries
involving their soft-soled slip-ons, children, and escalators.
Clark Meyer is suing the company for $2 million after his
four-year-old son was injured on an Atlanta
airport escalator while wearing Crocs. According to the suit, the boy’s foot
was “severely and permanently” injured. And the parents of a three-year-old who
broke three of her toes on an escalator while wearing Crocs are also suing the
company.
The Crocs company has promised to insert safety labels into their shoes,
but maintains that Crocs are no more likely to injure children on
escalators than other types of footwear. Indeed, at least two children wearing
flip flops were hurt on Atlanta
Airport escalators this
past summer, in addition to the Crocs injury.
It does seem to me that these injuries are not exclusively Crocs' fault. Given that there about 7,500 serious escalator-related injuries a year, that children under five are likely to be involved in these accidents, and that Crocs are very popular right now, it does seem that the Crocs company is simply a convenient, and potentially lucrative, scapegoat for a larger safety issue.
But having no personal experience with Crocs, I can't really
judge the lawsuits. Do parents of Croc-toting kids find the shoes to be
more dangerous than other kinds of footwear?
Photo: New York Times
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