Jill Mollison was shopping with her husband and 3-year-old son, Jake. Then all of a sudden, the mother from West Des Moines heard it. A screeching sound, her son’s shriek and the smell of burning rubber. Jake’s foot was stuck inside of the escalator. The incident would leave any parent in shock. When it comes to small children, anything from a button battery to an escalator can become a deathtrap.

“Jake just started screaming at the top of his lungs and he looked down and Jake’s foot was stuck inside the escalator,” Jill told KCCI’s Laura Terrell. The little guy’s entire foot was lodged in the side of the escalator. Jake’s father reacted quickly and pulled him out of the malfunctioning machine.

“The fact that he was in tennis shoes probably saved his toes. I think he probably would have lost them if he hadn’t had those on,” the concerned mother says. KCCI reports that the Iowa Division of Labor indicates that there were 18 similar escalator incidents in the state alone in 2015. While Jake is going to recover just fine, no parent wants to see their child in pain or deal with unexpected medical bills. Jill hopes parents will keep a keen eye on their children while riding the escalator; it seems that whether they’re holding on to the railings or not, the situation can quickly become a disaster.

“I encourage them to hang on to the railings so they don’t fall, but then that gets their bodies close to the side. So I just want parents to be aware,” she said.

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