Welcome to new look Mumii, the woman's magazine for every mum out there.
Mumii 14
Accidents happen. We all know that. Yet the unfortunate events of one family, have led to outrage on Social Media, and rather critical assumptions have been made about a couple’s parenting skills. All because of a piece of CCTV footage which has appeared online.
A gentleman had carried their stroller down a flight of stairs on the London Underground at Goodge Street Station. The stroller was placed against the wall, facing the stairway rather than the platform. The man went to help a second family member with a second pushchair, when the most unfortunate series of events transpired.
The stroller was caught by a gust of wind which pushed it past the stairwell and across the platform. It fell directly on to the tracks just moments after a train had left the station. It travelled quite a way on an unfortunately quiet station – had it been busy, the stroller would not have got that far un-noticed.
A woman, we presume to be the mother, then did what I think any mother would have done. She jumped onto the tracks to retrieve her child, still firmly strapped in to her stroller.
The story has a happy ending – baby, mother, stroller and belongings are all safe and sound. But, the ending could have been so different. An outcome which is not worth thinking about.
Chief Inspector Mark Lawrie said, "This was a frightening incident, not just for the scale of the danger the child was exposed to, but also because the woman then put her own life on the line by going onto the tracks. We urgently need to identify the people involved to ensure the child wasn't injured as a result of the fall onto the tracks."
If you know the people involved or have any information about the incident, please call the British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40 or ring Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111, and quote log TSUB/B12 of 11/8/14.
The question on everyone’s minds is, could this accident have been avoided? Yes, the family could have put the brake on but hindsight is a wonderful thing. It was the air pressure (wind) coming down the tunnel which caused this stroller to move. And it moved a fair distance. I don’t think anyone could have really predicted this happening. Parents are human beings too and ‘things’ happen. Accidents happen.
The only pushchair currently available on the UK market that could have prevented this and potentially taken in to account human error / mistakes is the new Navigator v2 from Phil&Teds. Our sister site Pushchair Trader recently reviewed this and gave it 5 stars.
One of the elements that make this a 5 star buggy is the revolutionary auto-stop brake. In a nutshell, this means that once you let go of the handle bar the brake automatically comes on. It was designed to prevent pushchairs from moving if a parent did not physically have hold of the pushchair. Had this family had been using a Navigator, this accident may well have been avoided.
We contacted Amanda Loveday from Phil&Teds who said, "The Navigator is designed for unparalled safety to reduce the chance of a buggy rolling away. Our Award winning Auto Stop helps parents adapt&survive which is one of our mottos here at Phi&Teds. What happened to these parents must have been frightening and our heart goes out to them"
We are all pleased and relieved that on this occasion, the child was safe – as was the mother. Both could have easily been electrocuted or hit by a train. The consequences of this do not bear thinking about.
Have you ever had any narrow escapes with your pushchair?
