Slip and fall accidents may sound like relatively harmless incidents from which any person could just bounce back. However, that insinuation is incorrect. Slip and fall accidents are quite serious and people can suffer truly life-changing injuries as a result of a poorly-maintained premises.
You’ve probably seen those yellow warning cones on the floor of a supermarket before. Those have to be placed there when a dangerous situation threatens patrons of the store. If a puddle has formed, or if staff just cleaned the area, or if a piece of equipment is malfunctioning, these cones need to be in place so that the patrons of the establishment know of a potential danger.
Sometimes situations arise where these cones aren’t in place, or a hazard exists that the managers of the premises do not know about. When someone suffers an injury as a result of an unsafe premises, they should consider their legal options.
Consider a woman who slipped and fell in a Home Depot in 2013. As she was walking around the store, a floormat that was soaked with water leaked a bit of that water onto the floor, causing a puddle. The woman slipped in this puddle and broke her foot, among other injuries. She is suing the company for a number of premises and safety violations, and she seeks unspecified damages.
This happens all the time, and it’s a shame. People miss work, rack up huge medical bills and have to deal with the pain of their injuries — all because a company couldn’t properly maintain its own premises.
Source: Louisiana Record, “Rain sodden carpet at Home Depot allegedly causes customer’s slip and fall,” Kyle Barnett, June 3, 2014