M'sian Mother Shows Why Parents With Strollers Are Forced To Use Escalators In One Photo
Her photo has been shared over 1,700 times by parents who've had similar experiences.
By Samantha Khor — 08 Aug 2019, 05:57 PM
Parents with small children know this struggle all too well.
In a telling photo that recently went viral on Facebook, a Malaysian woman highlighted the never-ending battle parents face when it comes to getting on mall elevators with their strollers.
"Been waiting for a good 15 minutes to take the lift. Ended up pushing the stroller [onto] the escalator and people gave me the sh*t look thinking why didn't I use the lift," the woman - who was at a shopping mall in Ampang - wrote.
"And people ask us parents why we use the strollers at escalators. I don't see any wheelchair, impaired, or elderly people in the lift... AT ALL," she added.
The photo has been shared over 1,700 times at the time of writing by parents who empathised with the situation. Some even shared their own experiences when trying to get on a lift with a stroller or a wheelchair:
This is hardly the first time such incidents have been brought up.
Last year, Astro Awani producer Luqman Hariz criticised fit and healthy shoppers for hogging elevators "to the point where the disabled and needy can't get in at all" in a post that was shared over 4,600 times on Facebook.
Many Malaysians shared the outrage and expressed similar complaints in regards to "healthy, abled people" hogging elevator spaces, with some adding to the conversation with their own experiences:
Why this is a cause for concern: Parents who get fed up with crowded lifts often resort to pushing strollers onto escalators, sometimes with their kids seated inside. Not only is that strongly advised against, it could lead to some pretty gnarly accidents.
In January, a child reportedly fell out of their stroller while they were on an escalator going downwards at a shopping mall in Pudu. Fortunately, the child only sustained some scratches from the fall.
Last year, a study by a Singaporean hospital found that among 300 escalator-related injuries reported in the hospital, more than one in 10 cases (12.7%) involved strollers, with nearly six in 10 (57.9%) requiring inpatient admission.
The wheels of certain strollers, especially those that are made of rubber, could also risk getting stuck between escalators' comb plates.
To encourage civic-mindedness, shopping malls like Sunway Pyramid have put up notices next to lifts urging the public to give way to the elderly, parents with strollers, wheelchair users, and pregnant women
So people, let's try to be more mindful and give priority to parents, the elderly, and wheelchair users when it comes to using mall elevators, okay?
