When visiting someone else’s property, safety is normally expected and therefore not something we often think about. However, occasions arise where accidents happen. Something as simple as a wet floor causing a minor slip can become a health hazard. In these instances, injuries such as sprains, fractures, shoulder, back, and even head injuries may occur. A simple visit turns catastrophic in a blink of an eye.
When an outside circumstance contributes to your injury, you should consider whether or not the owner holds responsibility over maintaining the area within the property. Or at least, he or she should have put up a hazard notice before fixing it. If you’re looking to file a case because of a slip and fall injury, it’s important to prove negligence and liability. This is where seeking a personal injury attorney can help.
If you are a victim of a slip and fall injury, then seeking professional legal counsel can become part of your healing process. Legal help means maybe being able to get compensated for lost work hours, getting medical expenses paid off, and receiving compensation from any pain and suffering experienced.
Listed below are some common causes of serious slip and fall injuries:
Poor Lighting.
When visiting a property, it’s normal to expect proper lighting. Good lighting is crucial when it comes to being able to see your surroundings. It’s also just as important when it comes to avoiding any dangerous situations. Properties such as hotels, pool areas, restaurant and bar areas should keep their surroundings well lit to prevent their customers from slipping or tripping. Pedestrians in a well-lit walkway will be less likely to slip and fall when they can safely navigate around their surroundings.
Wet Floor.
We see “Slippery When Wet” signs in many places. While we’ve grown accustomed to them, there are still many public places that may forget to put up the hazard sign. This means an increased possibility of injuries if people are walking about. Slipping and falling from a wet surface can cause whiplash, a sprained ankle, and fractures. Proper signage indicating a possible danger is important.
Uneven Surfaces.
Flooring such as torn carpet, uneven wood floor boards, potholes, and other unseen hindrances causes a majority of slip and fall injuries. What should be a safe walkway turns hazardous when an owner neglects to upkeep their property. An elderly person walking through a store, tripping over torn carpet, and then injuring his or her hip is just one scenario that can take place. If the injury is bad enough such as a fractured hip, this can mean a long healing time – from surgery to hospitalization to rehabilitation. Hence, it’s important for property owners to maintain their walking surfaces.
Faulty Stairs.
A sudden dropping sensation and tumble down hard surfaces – this is one of the worse feelings to experience when going up or down a flight of stairs. There shouldn’t be a need to worry about faulty stairs when visiting a place. In fact, the owner has a legal duty to maintain the property in order to keep it safe. When the owner neglects to check and/or fix the stairs, injuries such as abrasions, cuts, fractured bones, or head and shoulder injuries may occur.
Insufficient Training.
Slip and fall injuries also happen in workplaces. More often than not, this is caused by the workplace’s lack of training their workers properly. Jobs such as construction and manufacturing may involve working on surfaces that could potentially be hazardous. In such cases, the workplace is responsible for providing proper training to the employees to ensure they know the proper way to conduct themselves. Failure of a workplace to do so may result in a slip and fall injury, leaving them unable to keep working or in some cases, unable to keep making an income.
Outside Weather.
Mother Nature can send some unexpected weather our way. But this still means that property owners and municipalities must still keep streets, walkways, and sidewalks safe for visitors and passerbys. This means plowing the road, shoveling walkways, and salting steps and walk areas. Not doing so may mean a trusting visitor may slip, fall, and become extremely injured at the owner’s property.
If you’ve become a victim of a slip and fall accident, it’s important to contact a personal injury attorney that can help you get back on your feet. Don’t let your medical expenses pile up or your injuries get the best of you. Take your life back and seek legal help today.