Can Crocs Kill?

Or is it the media? Do we really need a report in every media outlet that Croc shoes can get caught in escalators and threaten the health of Western civilization? They're plastic. They're easily washable. They work.

One of the nation's largest subway systems -- the Washington Metro -- has even posted ads warning riders. The ads feature a photo of a crocodile, though they don't mention Crocs by name.

Four-year-old Rory McDermott got a Croc caught in an escalator last month at a mall in northern Virginia. His mother managed to yank him free, but a toenail was almost ripped off.

''I came home and typed in 'Croc' and 'escalator,' and all these stories came up,'' said Jodi McDermott, of Vienna, Va.

According to reports from as far away as Singapore and Japan, entrapments occur because of two of the shoes' selling points: their flexibility and grip. Some report the shoes get caught in the ''teeth'' at the bottom or top of the escalator, or in the crack between the steps and the side of the escalator.

Crocs officials said they were working with the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation on public education. But the group's executive director, Barbara Allen, said that's not true. Allen said a Crocs official called her in 2006 about possible cooperation. But since that first contact, Crocs has not called, and nobody from the company will return Allen's calls, she said.