An accident waiting to happen

Bottom picture : Notice on the right side of picture is a dangerous piece of thin glass protruding? That is also another danger point. I just thank God she did not run into that.

I know these pictures aren't very good at emphasizing our point. You have to be physically there to see it for yourself. From a distance, this looked like the entrance to a certain boutique in Marina Square, right beside the Starbuck's cafe. Mum and I were interested in going in to take a look at what the shop had to offer. So we were both headed this way, thinking that it was the way in, but when we went close enough to it, both realized that it was actually a window pane, which resembled very much the shop's entrance. The actual point of entry was around a corner to the right of this picture.

While browsing, we heard a very loud bang, and mum wondered what the sound could be. I had just walked past the pane on the inside of the shop, and having realised what could have happened, knew at once that princess was the one who would most likely have been on the opposite of said glass pane. I was right of course, and she had run smack right into it. Mum and I were discussing at length before that, the danger of the pane which gave no indication that it was there. There were no warning signs or those strips which show you clearly that you can't go through there. I am not saying she wasn't at fault at all for having made that run, but if there had been more visible signs, the accident could have been prevented.

I went out immediately to princess who had gone back to her daddy by then, and she was visibly upset, I think more from the shock of it than the actual pain itself. A pinkish hue had started forming on her left cheek. I was pissed! I got hubs to go sort it out and was dragging princess to the shop to show them what had happened to her face. She refused to go and pulled me back. I believe it was more to do with embarrassment. I left her with grandma who calmed her down, and followed hubs into the boutique. By that time, the manager had been called and he was already with hubs. I didn't know that as I was a few minutes behind, so I said it to a certain guy, E, that I wanted the contact for the person higher in authority to the store manager. His reply was that the manager was already with the hubs, and that 'we ARE already trying to solve the matter'. The pompousness of his attitude, not at all apologetic that an accident such as this had happened and in his words as told to mum 'it's happened many times'.

Hubs took the store manager out to where it had happened and the manager said it didn't look like an entrance. Well, of course he'd say that. He knew the store inside out. We are talking about a little child here. How could she judge that it wasn't one? Even we adults initially mistook it for one. His rationale was that it was designed by their Italian designers to give full exposure to the shop and for the public to be better able to view the interior from the outside. A few metres away is a very famous boutique which has the same kind of frontage but had put a full window display area which didn't prohibit the customer from taking a peek in, so I don't see their point of argument.

After getting the contact numbers of both the manager as well as the MD, we gave princess a treat of ice-cream, as requested by her. While there, I noticed that her eyebrow had turned a light shade, as if the hair had gone off a little. I then realized that there was a swelling on the brow so it had spread the brow hair a bit and it looked like it had been shaved off.

We decided to take her to see the doctor as it was the brow bone which had taken the greatest impact. If it had been just the cheek, I would have left it. I wasn't about to take a risk on the eye area. Some people might think it's being kiasu, but I think it's better to be safe than sorry.

The MD was communicating to hubs throughout that afternoon and was even offering to send her a 'get well' basket. I told him to just say it to her thanks for her thoughts but it wasn't necessary. We did not make a big hooha to get benefits out of it. What we want is for them to make that area safe. As hubs says, one accident is one too many.

We have not gotten any email replies from her as she does not want to commit herself due to the legal aspect of the case but we do need to see some proof and some pictures to show that the problem has been resolved or else we'll just take our case to the newspapers. I find that oftentimes when the Straits Times is involved, we often get a solution to the matter.