Personal Injury: Trip and Fall

Although some people fall because they are not watching where they are going or because they feel faint, many falls involve safety hazards over which they have no realistic control.

• Premises defects.

  Store employees may obstruct an aisle floor with stacked boxes or display merchandise. Tree roots may lift a sidewalk section. Workmen may have improperly installed shower safety bars.
  

• Dangerous conditions.

  Restaurants may not clean up slippery food on the floor in front of a salad bar. A machine shop's floor mats may pop up when they overlap.
  

• Failure to maintain a safe property.

  A stairway may have loose handrails. Someone's swimming pool may have inadequate fencing or other safeguards.

Anatomy of a Trip and Fall

When a 54-year-old woman tripped at a restaurant, she struck her head and suffered a detached retina, eventually losing vision in one eye. When she brought suit, her attorney, with the help of an expert engineering witness, reported that water leakage two years earlier had loosened floor tiles and that many customers and staff had stumbled there. In addition, the expert said the missing tiles violated local building codes and that $10 was all that was needed to make full repairs. The defendant claimed that posting a "Watch Your Step" sign and placing a mat over the uneven floor were adequate safety measures. The jury thought otherwise and concluded that the restaurant was 90 percent at fault for the injury.