Even 70 years after the invention of escalators, they were still dangerous to the public, and the Indianapolis Municipal Airport from 1958-1962 was no exception. As a summer intern at the State Archives, I couldn’t believe how many escalator accident reports I found as I was processing records from the Indianapolis Airport Authority (Accession 2024253). Today, escalators are relatively safe, as long as you’re not playing around on them. The same cannot be said during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, at least according to this collection! Even though escalators were created in the 1890s, passengers ranging from the young to the old sustained multiple injuries while on escalators at the Indianapolis Municipal Airport between 1958 and 1962.

Children are known to be injury-prone, and escalators can add to the seriousness of the injury. One incident involved a 3-year-old in 1959. His father was busy and didn’t notice when the child sat down on the moving escalator steps. The child’s finger was caught in the moving parts, and he received a slight laceration on his right hand. Luckily, it wasn’t a severe injury but could have been much worse. A later incident involved another 3-year-old in 1962. As the child descended the escalator with her mother, her rubber boots were caught in the step and the boot was torn off her foot. She shockingly remained unharmed. Unfortunately, her boot could not be salvaged.

Shoes were a common cause of injury that can be seen throughout many of these accident reports, so much so, that by 1962 accident reports were updated to include a new section for injuries caused by any article of clothing like a rubber sole or heel.

Our final child is a 6-year-old girl who also sustained an injury from sitting on a moving escalator step in 1961. Her fingers became stuck in the step. Her index finger was broken, and her middle finger was cut. The injuries detailed weren’t life-threatening, but they show a pattern of how quickly and easily children were injured while sitting on the steps or wearing ill-fitting clothes.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, adults over the age of 50 were also regularly injured on escalators. In an incident from 1962, a 58-year-old man lost his balance while riding up the escalator and fell, injuring his elbow. In previous cases, inappropriate shoes were the cause of the injury, but the accident report points out that this man was wearing sturdy shoes made of leather soles and rubber heels.

Another accident involved a 61-year-old from 1961. This person was descending the escalator and fell down the full length of the escalator, resulting in cuts on their left hand and left side of their face. One incident was caused by someone’s caution on the escalator. In 1958, a 68-year-old woman became scared while getting on the escalator. After getting on she quickly tried to get off and tripped in the process. Her heels were scraped on the top treadle.

Out of all the accident reports I discovered while processing this collection, there were only two accident reports of people between the ages of 10 and 50. In 1961, a man was on the escalator when the steps jerked, and his leg became caught. In the same year, a 31-year-old woman’s plastic heel was caught in the steps and broke off. She wasn’t injured, but she was not happy about her shoe breaking.

Over the years, passengers ranging from 3 years old to 68 years old were injured by escalators at the Weir Cook Municipal Airport. The causes ranged from sitting children, shoes being caught in the steps, or imbalance causing falls. Created in 1890, escalators have injured many and the Indianapolis Municipal Airport is not an exception as showcased in accident reports from 1958 to 1962.

When I was shifting through the documents and found these escalator incidents, I was captivated by them. It never occurred to me that escalators could be the cause of so many accidents and be so dangerous if not handled with proper care. Then it occurred to me, knowledge of simple technology now was not something parents passed down yet. I remember my mom and dad telling me not to move on escalators, and now I see why. It seemed silly to me the first couple times I read the accident reports but after the fifth report I became concerned. I started to see that new technology affects so many lives. It could be considered bizarre today when learning about how the type of shoe someone was wearing determined if they would get into an accident. In the 1958 reports there wasn’t a category for clothing items relating to accidents, but by 1961 the reports had a new section because of so many accidents relating to types of shoes. Thank goodness for parents telling kids not to move so our shoes don’t get eaten. Due to escalators and other technology being dangerous to others if people are not aware of how they work.

This post was written by intern Rae Stearman. Published 8 August 2024