Hi. I just want to share a horrible experience my wife had involving an escalator deflector brush. A deflector brush is a long continuous brush made of stiff bristles running up the sides of the escalator just above the step level. This is designed supposedly to help deflect garments, shoes, and other items away from the gap between the moving steps and the skirt board. However, the opposite happened in our case. We were on our way down from one level to the next using an escalator when all of a sudden the child in front of us lost his balance and fell down. I could see that the child's footwear (looking like a rubber clog) and his right foot was somehow stuck somewhere near the skirt board. I tried to help the child to get up but all of a sudden my wife, who was standing behind me on the escalator, screamed in pain and when I turned around, to my shock and horror I saw that her right foot was trapped between the deflector brush and the skirt board!!! The deflector brush had come loose from the side skirt forming an "V" opening where my wife's right foot was wedged tightly. All the while, the escalator was descending and my wife naturally was moving down the same direction while her right foot remained firmly stuck at the point where the loosened end of the deflector brush was still attached to the skirt board. This motion twisted her ankle while the metallic part of the deflector brush and the screws used to fasten it to the skirt board was cutting through her flesh like a knife slicing with each agonizing movement!

At the last moment, I firmly grabbed the loose-end of the deflector brush and yanked hard until it broke up! Needless to say, my wife suffered multiple lacerations on her right lower leg and a sprained right ankle. Miraculously, the child only suffered minor scratches but there was a pinch mark on his right rubber clog.