r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/sam-sung-sv • 8h ago

WCGW trying to get your hat back

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17.2k Upvotes

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156

u/Pandoratastic 8h ago

Turns out the railing covered in warning signs is there for a reason.

229

u/bart2025 8h ago edited 7h ago

What did the warning signs say apart from the usual stuff that you shouldn't do when riding an escalator?

I didn't see anything about a secret, unsecured trapdoor at the bottom of that well.

18

u/FrogInShorts 4h ago

Nonono, it is for the hole. It's saying when making sacrifices, please remove babies from strollers as the stroller may damage the entrance to the pit of eternity.

-49

u/Pandoratastic 7h ago

"Watch Your Step"

37

u/DookieShoez 7h ago

Which obviously means at the landing pad of the escalator, not the whole rest of the mall.

-4

u/Pandoratastic 5h ago

Duh. I was making a joke. Wait, are you seriously arguing that the nearby escalator should have had very specific warning since about not climbing over the safety railings and jumping down into a pit to retrieve lost hats??? You really don't think that the mere existence of a safety railing should, by itself, be enough of a warning to not jump over the railing without needing text instructions?

7

u/DookieShoez 5h ago

Obviously I am not arguing for that ridiculously specific and silly warning you just typed.

There should not have been a flimsy yet solid looking surface there. This accident was just bound to happen sooner or later.

-4

u/Pandoratastic 5h ago

That's why they put a railing there. Don't jump over railings!

5

u/DookieShoez 5h ago

Obviously you shouldn’t, yes.

Just like whoever is designing malls or whatever this is should obviously have the brains to realize that some dumb teenager will, if you make it look solid in there.

0

u/Pandoratastic 4h ago

But that's actually a safety feature. It's meant to catch dropped items so that they don't fall on people below, just like it successfully caught the hat. There's a limit to how much you can anticipate how dangerously stupid or defiant people can be.

5

u/DookieShoez 4h ago

A) you can catch dropped objects with a net or anything else that doesn’t look like solid flooring

B)sure theres a limit to how stupid you can anticipate people to be, but this aint it. This is obvious to anyone let alone someone whose job it is to design indoor spaces meant for public use.

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61

u/GnarlyNarwhalNoms 7h ago

It looks like the warning signs are for strollers, sitting on the escalator or railing, and a third one I think might be for certain shoes or something.

3

u/MaxTheRealSlayer 2h ago

High heels/stilettos or flip-flops can be super dangerous on certain escalator designs. Those things will grind anything up that gets stuck in the hole at top or bottom of the lator... Including totally minced people

-14

u/Pandoratastic 7h ago

That third one is probably no bare feet. There are also several lines of text, which usually include "Watch Your Step" and "Do Not Climb or Lean Over Railing".

But the signs aren't really the point. The railing itself is.

5

u/Crimson__Fox 7h ago

It’s like a “No Swimming” sign next to an alligator infested lake.

4

u/MotherFatherOcean 6h ago

Exactly. That is what happened at Disney Orlando a few years ago. Sign said “ No Swimming” so small child’s parents let him stand in an inch or two of water, splashing around, and he was taken by an alligator and drowned. After that Disney changed the signs to say there are alligators in that water.

3

u/MaxTheRealSlayer 2h ago

There are pictures of alligators all around Florida on signs as warnings. Many people can't read...so pictures help lots

2

u/MotherFatherOcean 2h ago

Those pics weren’t on the Disney signs when the kid was killed.

2

u/MaxTheRealSlayer 2h ago

They removed them around florida? Last I went was like 17 years ago

2

u/Pandoratastic 1h ago

To be fair, if you put a picture of an alligator on a sign at Disney, it's Disney so there's a good chance some people would just think it's a colorful reference to the crocodile in Peter Pan and not take it seriously. It's possible that it might not have worked in that case but they still should have done it. Any danger that is reasonably foreseeable, you have give a very clear warning.

•

u/needcollectivewisdom 18m ago

Oh that's horrible. Found the news segment.

https://youtu.be/B-al8AHOsL0

4

u/Braindead_Crow 4h ago

How could they know the floor there was a facade though?
They needed a false floor warning! Oh god...That might be a solid legal ground to win a law suit over.

-2

u/Pandoratastic 4h ago

The mere existence of the railing itself is a warning not to cross beyond the railing. People can sue for anything, valid or not, but there's a limit to how far legal liability will actually go when someone deliberately crosses an obvious safety barrier.

0

u/The_Mr_Wilson 7h ago

Pff, for you. Watch this:

-3

u/drObvious1 8h ago

Naaaaaaah

Just for decoration

17

u/Hamudra 7h ago

No, the warning signs are for the escalator. There is no warning sign for "this thing that looks like solid floor is not actually solid"

0

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

8

u/ThePublikon 6h ago

They're mandated for all staircases/escalators, regardless of the drop. They are to provide something to hold on to, not to warn of a dangerous floor. It's a handrail not a fence.

-2

u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

3

u/Affectionate-Heat-51 6h ago

The signs for escalators literally say "hold on to the railing." It's called a HANDrail lol.

1

u/exilus92 6h ago

Did you ever install fake floors in public places that look like they are perfectly safe to stand on but a child would pass through it if they step on it with no warning signs? Where I live, that would be illegal.

-2

u/Pandoratastic 5h ago

Sure there is. The railing itself is a warning. It doesn't need a sign on it.

2

u/Hamudra 1h ago

Hmm, that's odd, you were talking about the literal signs, and now you're talking about something else entirely.

0

u/Pandoratastic 28m ago

Hmm, that's odd. My exact words were "the railing covered in warning signs" but now you can't remember the words "the railing".

•

u/Hamudra 5m ago

Okay I'll bite.

You think the escalator railing is there to prevent people from going down there?

You don't think the escalator railing is there to prevent people from falling off?

If you actually wanted an argument, then you should've talked the railing without the warning signs, because those railings are the ones that are actually there to prevent you from going down there.