accident in tesco

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Chester85 wrote: »

See, at Sainsburys, at least it's a better quality of crate you fall over

lol that made me smile.

At night it is not unheard of for crates and trolleys to be out so there is an expectation on the customer side of things for these to be there, however they must obviously be in a way that they are not a hazard to the customer whilst on the land.

I guess this is the question, how were they positioned and would they have been negligant, if it is more of a case that the OP's mum walked into them due to her lack of care then obvioulsy there is no claim and if she tripped over them due to the lack of care by the supermarket then there may be.

However be assured that it will go one of two ways, they will either offer an amount quickly or make you wait several several months and may even take it to court and defend (which is not unheard of!)

david39

You can get a free consultation with a solicitor these days for a short period - sufficient to put this sort of problem forward and get an informed opinion on what are your rights and whether there is a case for Tesco to answer.

From the above replies, you will see that there are arguments on both sides and the overall answer is therefore inconclusive.

If you feel you want to progress this, then seek a solicitor. Many reputable local solicitors will take cases on a No Win - No Fee basis if they think there is mileage in it.

Dizzy_Ditzy

thank you everyone- i shall show this to her tomorrow and try to make the point that a simple letter should be perfectly sufficient.

TBH i dont even think she is after compo, but so many people around her are telling her to go for it, its not a suprise that she's been considering it!

Cheers!

Shelldean

right don't if this will help or not?
A couple of years ago my OH twisted his ankle badly in tesco's car park. He twisted his ankle because a paving slab had been removed, and then filled in with cement. However because the slab was on a slant, and the cement leveled itself, there was a increasing dip between the top of the cement and the next slab( kind of difficult to explain) Anyway he caught his foot on the edge and badly twisted his ankle. We went and complained but no one seemed concerned and TBH neither were we at that point. he was still able to walk etc. Howeve upon return to our campsite, it began to swell and blacken most alarmingly. So off to hospital we went, luckly he drives a auto and so could manage with one foot, as I don't drive. Hospital pronounced it badly sprained.
Hubby couldn;t walk very far at all and was in agnony trying to get to the toilet block. Luckly this was the second to last day of the holiday, So we spent the time quietly on site, and it did mean I had to break camp alone, with just the kids to help.
The day following the accident we went back to the store and showed them OH now black foot. All they offered to do was add the details to the accident book.
We managed to get break camp and get home.
OH went into work the next day as quite simply if he doesn't work he doesn't get paid. But was unable to do his work, so came home lunch time. And then had to have the next two days off.
I wrote to tesco and complained. This was ignored. I re wrote adding i was unhappy at being ignored!!! was ignored again. So I called. got through to a lovely man, who said there was nothing on the system. He took all my details. And I re sent everything by email to him.
end result was a compensation chq covering OH loss of wages, plus the same again, for his suffering, the fact the end of our holiday was ruined and the fact OH couldn't do his voluntary job until his ankle was fit (He was a football manager)
We was very happy with this result, maybe we could've held out for more, but who knows??? TBH we'd have settled for the loss of earnings.

The difference in our case and OP mother's is we was majorly out of pocket and inconvienanced by the accident.

Ste_C

How the !!!!!!!g hell does somebody fall over crates? It's not like slipping over on black ice is it? Crates are obvious to anyone who looks where they're going.

go_cat

The main question I would be asking would be
was she attended by the store first aider and more importantly was it written in the accident book?

Also if you want to request cctv then you need to do so asap under the data protection act as stores don't keep it long before it is overwritten.

Have you approached the store it happened in to see what they have to say for themselves?

Trixie102

I work in safety and basically companies have a duty of care to staff and others (eg customers). They are legally required to have entered the incident in their accident book (especially if I have read this right and she needed an ambulance and accident stay). In certain cases the incident also needs to be reported to the Health and Safety Executive, and an internal investigation carried out as to why the incident happened and what action lead to it, and was carried out afterwards.
Although restocking is a norm within shops, it does not mean that when an accident occurs due to crates, boxes, trolleys etc being left in aisles it is acceptable. I would suggest you or your Mum writes down everything regarding the incident- time, date, how the incident occured, injury substained, treatement etc. I would then suggest you contact Tesco telling then of the incident and ask if they were aware of what happened.
People always seem to jump down people's throats when they mention compensation (don't use a no win no fee company if you do decide to claim- as someone suggested visit a local solicitor who offers free initial legal advice) but if the incident may cause long-term problems to your Mum's knee or she (or anyone who helped her) hadany out of pocket expenses due to it then it may be worth pursuing, however claims can take a long time to be completed (I have a friend who had a serious accident at work and now can't work and his claim has still to be settled after 3 years!) and you have to have evidence to prove that they breached their duty of care (somethimes very diffiicult to do).

peachyprice

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

I *think* my dad took pics of it on his phone

I think she was on the floor for a good 5 minutes

Why didn't your dad go and get help rather than leaving her on the floor for 5 mins?

Shelldean wrote: »

right don't if this will help or not?
A couple of years ago my OH twisted his ankle badly in tesco's car park. He twisted his ankle because a paving slab had been removed, and then filled in with cement.

The difference in our case and OP mother's is we was majorly out of pocket and inconvienanced by the accident.

No, the difference in your case was that Tesco were negligent for not fixing the pavement correctly, it was not unreasonable for your husband to fail to notice the uneven surface.

Crates in an ailse would be obvious and can be expected to be found on a shop floor, especially late at night when extensive replenishment is taking place. It is not unreasonable for Tesco to expect their customers to notice big crates on the floor.

Helix

goater78 wrote: »

Frankly when you go shopping you shouldn't have to weave in and out of different crates to get your food and though I doubt I would trip over them myself, many times i see people walking around not looking where they are going and I am not suprised that someone tripped over a crate (that shouldn't have been there).

How exactly do you expect the shelves to get stocked? By Magic?

SUESMITH_2

Helix wrote: »

How exactly do you expect the shelves to get stocked? By Magic?

to be honest i'm surprised there are not more accidents in tescos late at night. ours is 24 hour but if you go after about 9.30pm you can't get up or down the aisles for crates, trolleys full of goods and packaging, it seems to me that they just carry on as they did when the store was closed but keep it open to maximise profits with little thought to customer safety.

in ours last friday one of the staff caught a cage and a load of beer fell off, the supervisor told him he would have to clean it up himself as the cleaners have finished - no wet or slippery floor signs, just him and her and a bit of cardboard trying to sweep the mess of beer and broken glass under the cage with people trying to get past