PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WHDH) - A 12-year-old girl had quite the scare when her shoe got stuck in an escalator during a cheerleading competition in Rhode Island on Sunday.
Carlee Smith stepped on the down escalator inside the Rhode Island Convention Center when the toe of her shoe got pulled to the side, trapping her foot between a step and the side of the escalator.
“She was freaking out,” Carlee Smith’s mother Wendy told WPRI. “Twelve years old, in a panic, ‘I can’t get my foot out, I can’t get my foot out!'”
As the escalator neared the bottom, two of her cheerleading teammates untied her show, allowing Smith to free her foot.
“She could’ve lost a toe. She could’ve lost a foot. She’s very tiny and petite,” Wendy Smith said. “She’s on crutches. She is home today. She can’t put any weight on the foot.”
Wendy Smith found the situation extremely alarming because the escalator kept going and didn’t automatically stop when her daughter got stuck.
“The shut off button is actually at the bottom of the escalator between the up and the down,” she explained.
The director of security at the convention center says the escalator was in working order
Wendy Smith says her daughter’s story should serve as a reminder to be careful when riding escalators.
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