A Louisville, Ky., mother is blaming the manufacturer of the popular Crocs shoes for injuries her 3-year-old daughter suffered when her foot was trapped in an escalator at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.

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According to the suit filed Tuesday in federal court in Kentucky, Crocs knew its shoes were dangerous for children but the Colorado-based company continued to market them in colors and styles attractive to prospective young Crocs wearers.

The mother, Alison Cox Pregliasco, said her daughter's foot was caught in the escalator and permanently injured on June 4. Once the shoe was shredded, the escalator ripped the skin off the child's big toe and broke that toe and two others, according attorney Andrew Laskin.

"We're asking for punitive damages," Laskin said. "Each time this happened to a child, they [Crocs] got out there and blamed everybody else. It's not the airport's fault. It's not the escalator's fault."

He said the child was not misbehaving when she was hurt.

The mother is asking for $4 million for her daughter, who was only identified by the initials A.P.

Telephone calls to Crocs seeking comment were not returned.

The suit said the company has tried to shift the blame for children injured while wearing the shoes to inattentive parents and escalator makers.

Crocs has been sued previously by parents of children hurt on escalators while wearing their shoes.

For example, the parents of another 3-year-old filed a $7 million lawsuit against the company in February because their daughter was injured on the escalator at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.

Consumer Reports last month reported safety groups in the United States and Japan had issued warnings about the dangers posed by young escalator riders wearing the shoes.