A safety switch failed on a Washington Square mall escalator that severed a 2-year-old's fingers Wednesday evening, a report from the Oregon Department of Consumer & Business Services states.

An out-of-service escalator in NJ Transit's concourse in ... An NJ Transit employee yelled out the location of the open stairway to commuters who had to push their way through crowds of people ...

They found that with this switch, the escalator could take an extra passenger every two seconds. That’s 28 percent more passengers who could ride on the escalator in a given period of time ...

The triggered switch, he said, is the same one that would have gone off had a flip-flop gotten stuck in the escalator, for example. And Monday’s incident, he said, was a manufacturer issue.

According to the lawsuit, the Williams family was using an escalator at the Bellaire location in March ... In addition to the inoperable skirt switch, the lawsuit said both companies failed ...