Walkway accident

Walkway accident

On April 11, two of my friends and I went early in the morning
to Carrefour on Jl. Sudirman. We used the moving walkway to go
into the store and I even held the arm of my friend because I was
afraid I would fall. When we finished shopping, we used the
moving walkway to leave the store. Each of us had a trolley
containing our purchases. While we were on the walkway I was
telling my friends that I felt this time that I was not going to
fall because my trolley seemed to be secure on the walkway.

To my surprise, when I was pushing the trolley off the end of
the walkway, it got stuck and no matter how hard I tried it would
not move until it reached a point whereby my friend's trolley was
hitting me in the back, and another trolley was also hitting her
in the back. You can just imagine the agony we went through while
the walkway kept on moving and the three of us were being
squeezed and crushed by each other's trolleys.

Since I was being pushed by the weight of two loaded trolleys,
plus the weight that of my two friends, my trolley began to fall
on its side. We asked for help, but it took some time before a
Carrefour employee helped pull my trolley off the walkway. We
were shocked by what had happened.

My friends were fine but the front and back of my legs were
bruised and scratched, and my right leg was injured. When we got
hold of ourselves, I told a Carrefour employee that I'd like to
see the manager. They paged him three to five times, but no
manager came. I saw a foreigner with a Carrefour ID and told him
what had happened. With his mobile phone he called the manager.
It took a while before he arrived, and all the while my right leg
was unattended to. The manager arrived and when he saw my legs,
he had the sense to get some disinfectant, saying that applying
it would be painful. I told him that what was more painful was
not being helped and not being attended to immediately.

The manager claimed that the trolleys were locally made, but I
told him that even so they must make sure that they worked
properly and ensure the safety of their customers. They claimed
this was the first time anything like this had happened.

But when I picked up my children from school and other parents
were asking what had happened to me, I told them the story and
one parent said that she had witnessed a similar accident at the
same store on April 2.

Carrefour management, please take safety measures if you want
your shoppers to continue to shop at your store. The safety of
customers should be a priority.

MARIA TERESA A. ANATALIO

Lippo Karawaci, West Java