Pizza express nightmare- nearly lost an eye

budfly

Pizza express nightmare- nearly lost an eye

Five of my close family were on a recent weekend visit to London and visited a pizza express restaurant on the Saturday evening of their visit. It happened about a month ago (Nov 2011) and the restaurant was busy. The five of them were crammed into a smaller table which meant that their table had to be moved by a member of staff to allow them access (meaning that it was closer to the next table of guests).

Just after starters the guest next to my family dropped her glass which wasn’t shatter proof. It smashed to smitherings sending glass shards everywhere including into my sisters eye. My family were understandably very distressed and asked for assistance from a member of staff which they eventually got ( it was busy). An ambulance was called and my sister ended up having to go and have shards of glass removed from her eyes which was a very traumatic experience.

This totally ruined their evening/weekend and has left my sister requiring follow up eye checks and eye drops to prevent infection and further damage. We are grateful that it wasn’t any worse.

We did contact pizza express about this incidence, mainly due to the seriousness of the incident and in the hope that they learn from the accident. They informed us that they didn’t accept any responsibility despite the fact that the accident happened on their premises due to overcrowding which in turn compromised our health and safety. Our worry was that if the glass had hit a baby or child im sure they would have probably been blinded for life as they would have been unable to stop rubbing the affected eye.

Pizza express did offer a token of gratitude of £50 voucher. Personally I thought this was an insult. Given it was a party of 5 at the restaurant the £50 would not have even covered their bill (not to mention drinks). Our trust with the restaurant in regards ours safety was broken and in my opinion had they of wanted us back I would have expected them to have least offered a complementary meal. As the accident happened to my sister she doesn’t want to complain any further and understandably wants to focus on her recovery. I have to respect this but I thought id share this with the forum so perhaps in the future you can think again when restaurants such as pizza express try and cram your party into tables in the hope of making a quick buck….It could end up in a serious accident.

Elle7

Was the restaurant actually over-capacity, or did they just have to move tables to fit people in?

They are laid out so that each table gets the maximum amount of room. When they fill up, they have to bring out more tables, and therefore it gets more cramped. If this is all that happened, then I don't think they would be liable - the woman who dropped the glass would be, if anyone, but it was an accident, and neither party really owes you any 'goodwill'.

If they were actually over the maximum amount of people allowed in the restaurant, then your local council will probably be interested, although you probably won't be entitled to any more then they have already offered - it wasn't their fault that the glass was dropped, or that it went in your sisters eye, and the child argument doesn't hold any water - it's been used too often, and has no legal basis anyway.

If your sister has occurred costs for medical treatment, then you could attempt to claim these back, but otherwise all you were hoping for was a goodwill gesture, which the £50 is. If you really only wanted them to be aware of what has happened, then write back and state you refuse the compensation but would like them to consider using shatter-proof glasses in the future.

scheming_gypsy

A clumsy eater and a freak accident yet it's Pizza Express' fault?

and the usual think of the children.

timberflake

Whilst I do think Pizza Express do have an element of liability if the restaurant was filled over it's capacity, how much do you think would be fair compensation?

Remember, compensation isn't meant to put you into a better position, it's meant to compensate you, nothing more.

So, the question is, how have you paid more than £50 as a result of the incident? Did the rest of the people stay for their meal? Even if they did, Pizza Express are only liable for the person that was injured, not everyone they were with too.

nomoneytoday

Exactly how much were you after? £50, £100? £1,000,000 ?

adouglasmhor

I think in Glasgow they would be liable for using non shatterproof glass as it's a licence condition, if a similar condition is apllied in that part of London your sister could claim for any losses incurred due to her injury. Time off work, prescription costs etc.

scheming_gypsy

couple of other things..

1 - if it was that busy, why did they agree to be shuffled in? why not go somewhere else?
2 - Why did they have to wait to get somebody's attention? they sell pizzas not perform emergency eye surgery. If you get glass in your eye you phone an ambulance yourself, you don't ask a waitress to do it twenty minutes later
3 - if you only wanted them to learn from it, why are you insulted at an added extra?

Velcro_Hotdog

Sue them all!

Sue PE for getting you a table
Sue the customer who dropped the glass
Sue the glass makers for not making it shater proof
Sue PE again for providing glass and not plastic

Or accept it was an accident and move on wth your life

sarahg1969

If you expect compensation from Pizza Express, you'd have to prove negligence (and thereafter, that it was the negligence that caused the injury - ie did the fact that there were too many people there cause the eye injury). That would be tricky in this sistuation, in my opinion.

ThumbRemote

timberflake wrote: »

Whilst I do think Pizza Express do have an element of liability if the restaurant was filled over it's capacity, how much do you think would be fair compensation?

Remember, compensation isn't meant to put you into a better position, it's meant to compensate you, nothing more.

So, the question is, how have you paid more than £50 as a result of the incident? Did the rest of the people stay for their meal? Even if they did, Pizza Express are only liable for the person that was injured, not everyone they were with too.

Assuming negligence on the part of Pizza Express, fair compensation for bodily injury would be calculated using something like Kemp & Kemps 'Quantum of Damages', not just out of pocket expenses.

budfly, you sound like you're annoyed more than after compensation, but in this case the best bet may be to contact a no win no fee solicitor. They could tell you if there's a case for Pizza Express to answer or not. They'll certainly have a better idea than most of the pathetic morons on this site who get a kick out of criticising others.

DCFC79

Velcro_Hotdog wrote: »

Sue them all!

Sue PE for getting you a table
Sue the customer who dropped the glass
Sue the glass makers for not making it shater proof
Sue PE again for providing glass and not plastic

Or accept it was an accident and move on wth your life

lol, anyone else left to sue

Ive dropped various breakable items eg a glass or 2 and cant say bits of glass have gone anywhere except on the floor.

Oh ive eaten at PE 3 or 4 times and my safety has been fine except all the nice food i ate had calories which arent good for you.