Do We Really Need Instructions on How to Use an Escalator?

 

DO WE REALLY NEED INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO USE THE ESCALATOR?

A few weeks ago, there was a story in the Las Vegas newspaper about a civil lawsuit and financial settlement between the family of a deceased senior citizen and a casino.  READ HERE

The senior was visiting a local casino. He used a walker. The senior stepped onto a moving escalator WITH THE WALKER. That’s when a mishap occurred. The leg of the walker got caught in the moving metal shards, and the senior was basically turned into bologna tunneling through a meat grinder. Pass the paprika. Okay, it wasn’t quite like that. But, the old man got mangled in the accident and later died from his injuries. Really sad. Too bad. Walker on a moving escalator….umm, that’s a no-no.

Of course, common sense doesn’t prevail here. The casino paid out a fat settlement (thus inviting additional future frivolous lawsuits). Inexplicably, a perfectly operational escalator with no defects is somehow to blame when an idiot hauls a mobility device onto a moving platform and then the predictable outcome occurs. Why isn’t the deceased 100 percent responsible for his own foolishness?  Now, the kids of the deceased can go out and buy a Ferrari.  That’ll teach the big bad casino.

The same casino company that was sued and settled now has big signs up at its escalators. “Safety tips” they call it. What next? Signs and safety tips on every staircase? At every elevator? At every doorway? Revolving doors are dangerous….will signs be necessary at revolving doors to warn idiots with walkers to proceed with caution? When does the mass madness of crazy lawsuits end and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY begin?

I took this picture yesterday (see above) of the escalator at the Suncoast from the parking garage leading into the casino, a walkway presumably used without incident at least a million times in the past 20 years. Now, I guess we have to stop and read more signs advised by lawyers. Too bad the casino didn’t countersue the deceased senior’s family for the cost of the cleanup. That would have been my verdict on this liability wackiness.

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Postscript: I guess the deceased moron couldn’t read the giant ELEVATOR sign.