Ikea Fined after Toddler Loses Fingers in Escalator Accident
Retail furniture giant Ikea has been prosecuted and fined, after a two year old boy had two fingers severed at a store in Milton Keynes.
The toddler, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was holding his fathers hand as he travelled on the stores travelator, a type of moving walk way, when he stumbled and fell, the young boy put out his left hand to save himself but it became trapped between the machines skirting and tread.
As his father picked up the screaming and obviously injured child he realised two of his fingers had been severed, one had rolled down to the bottom of the travelator and the other has never been found.
The young boy was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery but the fingers could not be saved.
An investigation into the incident revealed that the gap between the travelator’s skirting and tread was larger than the legal limit of 4mm and posed a potential safety hazard.
Ikea was fined £75,000 after admitting a breach of Health and Safety Regulations, following a successful prosecution by Milton Keynes Council, at Aylesbury Crown Court.
The company has also agreed to pay personal injury compensation to the injured child, however the final figure has not, as yet been decided.
