Traveling With Kids Safely
You may recall the amazing video out of South Korea last week: a mother and her baby narrowly escaped when the subway doors closed on the baby's stroller and the mother was dragged down the platform. Remarkably, neither the mother nor baby was seriously hurt.
This incident shows how in a split second a simple outing with your kids can go terribly wrong. The Early Show consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen offers safety tips for parents riding with their kids on the subway, in cars and even on the escalator.
Accidents such as the one in South Korea are very rare but they can happen. In New York City, most subways doors have sensors that let the conductor know the doors aren't closed, so the train won't go anywhere. Some subways doors will open a little if they sense something is trapped between them, but it's not like an elevator where the doors open up all the way.
Here is what parents should do to keep their kids safe as they try to catch the train.
- Never use the stroller to stop the doors from closing. Just wait for the next train.
- When you are on the platform make sure the stroller is locked. In New York City, the subway platforms tilt toward the tracks. Watch those diaper bags and purses — you can have a problem if they get caught.
- If you see someone in trouble pull the emergency brake inside the train.
There are a lot of situations where children can get trapped and hurt. Escalators can be very dangerous for parents with kids. Ten thousand people are hurt on escalators every year and many of them are children. Here are some safety tips if you have to ride the escalator with your children:
- If you have a stroller, do not use the escalator. If the escalator stops all of a sudden, the stroller can roll forward or back, which is not a good situation. Use the elevator instead
- Do not let your child hold the handrail. Place your child in the middle of the step. Let your child hold your hand and you hold the handrail.
- Keep your kids away from the side of the escalator. Baggy clothes and shoelaces can get sucked into the escalator if you are too close to the side or even at the top or bottom of the escalator. Children have lost fingers and toes.
- If you see someone in trouble, hit the stop switch at the top or bottom of the escalator.
Another place children can get trapped is in the cars their parents are driving — power windows can be dangerous.
Kids can get their heads caught between the window and the door frame and strangle themselves.
In many American-made cars, you have to press down on the button to make the window go up, so kids can hit the button with a knee or a foot and accidentally make the window go up. If their head is out the window, it can get caught.
- Use the child safety locks on your windows and never leave your kids unattended in the car.
Over the next few years, car makers are required to change power-window buttons so it's harder to accidentally make the window go up. Safety experts are also pushing to make it mandatory that cars have auto reverse on the windows, so if they hit something as they go up, they immediately go back down. Most European cars already have these safety features in place.