Young girl rescued after getting trapped in travelator at Sydney shopping centre
A trip to a Sydney shopping centre took a dangerous turn for a young girl who became trapped in an escalator.
The child was at Westfield Parramatta with her parents on Tuesday when she fell down on a travelator and her arm became stuck.
Video of the incident shows a woman calling for help, while the girl’s distraught parents try to comfort their terrified child.
The girl’s father desperately used a screwdriver to try to free his daughter and security guards quickly joined in with other small tools.
When the girl was eventually freed, she was taken to hospital, where she was given the all-clear to go home.
Westfield says its travelator instantly shut down because of a special safety device.
However, Workcover has been called in to investigate how the accident happened in the first place.
Jason Chambers from Kidsafe said Australia was lucky that it hadn’t had many severe accidents involving escalators and travelators.
"We've been quite lucky that we haven't really seen that many severe accidents in Australia recently, but there have been quite a number of severe injuries overseas,” he said.
"Including some fatalities."
Workcover has shut down the travelator until a new safety trigger switch is installed. That new switch is expected to be installed overnight.
