The father of a boy who was injured when his Crocs shoes got caught in an escalator at an Atlanta Airport has filed a lawsuit against the company. The father Clark Meyer, is claiming $2 million in damages for injuries suffered by his son, identified only as “AM”.
According to the lawsuit, Meyer’s son was “severely and permanently injured” in the accident on July 15th last year. On that day, the boy’s foot was snagged on an escalator at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport. The boy who was four years old at that time suffered at least three broken toes and cuts. In the lawsuit, Meyer alleges that the company was aware of the dangers to children wearing the popular Crocs shoes in 2005, but that didn’t stop the company from marketing the shoes targeting young children.
It is the second such lawsuit filed in Atlanta in 2005 involving children and escalator injuries linked to the popular shoes. Crocs meanwhile has denied that the shoes cause any injuries. The company blames faulty escalator design and the parents for the injuries suffered by children who wear their shoes.
In 2006, Crocs came under intense scrutiny by product liability attorneys and consumer safety groups after reports of the shoes being caught in escalators began coming in. The reports mostly involved young children, and the foot injuries have been severe. At the Atlanta airport itself, there have been multiple reports of shoe-related injuries, and almost all of them involved Crocs shoes.
The worries were severe enough for retailer American Girl to post signs in at least three of their stores, asking customers wearing crocs not to use escalators. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were more than 10,000 injuries related to escalator accidents in 2006, but only a few of them involved Crocs shoes. In 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Commission began alerting customers that soft sided shoes that were more pliable and malleable were likely to get stuck in escalators. However, the agency has never specifically mentioned Crocs in these injuries.