Elderly woman hurt on FOC escalator

A Ridgeway great-grandmother is in hospital after a horrific fall on an escalator. Among her many injuries, she will no longer have the use of her right eye.

Lying in her hospital bed, Lily Raine, 87, is lucky to be alive, though in a lot of pain. That is because on Sunday Lily fell while she was on an escalator at FirstOntario centre.

“I put my foot on the top step, I remember feeling it, like I stepped, and everything started to move, and then next thing I know, I’m down at the bottom.”

Lily broke both of her arms, as well as her right shoulder. She also broke several teeth, and has multiple fractures in her face. Her right eye was partially severed and has been rendered useless.

When asked what it’s been like since then, Lily says it was “like hell.”

She was there with family for Disney on Ice. Lily was on her way up when she turned to look at her daughter who fell first. Lily turned to help and then fell herself.

Her grand-daughter Jennifer Eves heard that someone had fallen and ran to help, but noticed the escalator had not stopped.

“Her face was down in the stair going like this as the escalator was moving, because of the impact of hitting, hitting her face.”

Jennifer says the manager informed her that the escalator’s emergency stop button had failed to work, and they had been forced to pull a fuse in order to stop the escalator. “The escalator was still at that point going by the time I got from the top of the stairs back down to the bottom.”

Lily lost consciousness, and was rushed to Hamilton General Hospital where it was not known if she would survive.

The Technical Standards and Safety Association says all escalators are inspected once every three years. However they would not say when the last inspection was at FirstOntario centre because an investigation is underway.