Escalator accidents do happen more often than you think, just ask the fans of Disney star Selena Gomez.

According to TMZ, several fans of Gomez, who trooped to Emerald Square Mall in Massachusetts to catch a glimpse of the star, were involved in an escalator accident.

It was reported that the escalator abruptly stopped and some even claimed it started going backwards fast which sent several young fans flying.

Police and firefighters assisted dozens of fans who fell down and five people were injured. Three of them were taken to the hospital for medical attention.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were as much as 11,000 escalator accidents in 2007. Majority of escalator accident injuries are caused by falls but 10 percent are caused by hands, feet or shoes that get trapped in escalators.

Most escalator accident victims are children and several have lost limbs or have gotten killed because a shoe, clothes, scarves, and shoelaces have gotten stuck in gaps in the escalator.

5-year old Kerriana Johnson from Florida was awarded millions of dollars worth of damages after she lost three fingers when her hand got sucked into a gap in the store’s escalator.

Defective, poorly maintained, or badly designed escalators cause thousands of injuries yearly. Most of these could have been avoided had the dangerous conditions of escalators been remedied or repaired.

Under the law, the owner of the property where the escalator is situated or the manufacturer of the escalator can be held liable for injuries or deaths suffered by passengers of the escalator.

A personal injury lawsuit can be filed by the victim against the establishment or company whose defective escalator caused the injury.

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