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