Accident at a restaurant

larkrisetocandleford

dacouch wrote: »

A step next to seating does not automatically make the restaurant liable.

Perhaps you could point me to where I said that was the case?

BobQ

The accident form is not directly irrelevant to your claim. It is probably just the record of the restaurant detailing what they believe happened. Unless it includes any statement by a witness it will not have much standing.

Is the restaurant a chain? If so I would visit the restaurant and ask for details of the head office contract. If not ask who the owner is. If you are going to take the matter further, you will need some legal advice.

You should also report the matter to the Environmental Heath Office at the local council as they are responsible for applying H&S requirements to restaurants.

The restaurant has an obligation under Health and Safety Law to have safe systems in place to minimise the risk to staff and customers. I believe any complaint should be along these lines (ie that they have not looked after their customer's safety by their actions or failures to act.

In law a restaurant should be able to demonstrate that it has conducted adequate risk assessments and that these include adequate mitigations of those risks. An 8" step very close to where someone is sitting is arguably a risk that they should have mitigated by not putting a table there in the first place.

I would also ask the restaurant for details of their public liability insurance. Even if they refuse they will realise that you are considering a claim.

NotRichAtAll

Nicky321 wrote: »

NO SHE WAS NOT! however the point is the bracket should NOT have been left protruding from the wall when the radiator had been REMOVED! if your input is purely sarcastic I think you should keep your comments to yourself.

was not been sarcastic at all, at the end of the day she did not have to sit there, she could of asked to be seated elsewhere.

BobQ

NotRichAtAll wrote: »

was not been sarcastic at all, at the end of the day she did not have to sit there, she could of asked to be seated elsewhere.

That is a really crass argument. The idea that its OK for a restaurant to have seating areas that have unsafe features because its up to the customer to spot the problems.

I too thought you were being sarcastic, to find you are serious is even worse!

spacey2012

I think the relevant points have been pointed out, particularly about "what to say" about drinking strong wine, think hint not criticism.

irishjohn

All the discussion about the step and the proximity to the seating in my mind is of no real importance. I would expect a large chain to have customer seating planned properly and the bench type seating described is likely to be pretty permanent - and not likely to be moved around to try and cram more tables in at a busy period, but like most of us I am merely speculating here.


The core of this post is that an elderly lady accidentally fell and injured her back quite badly requiring paramedics and subsequent stitching to an injury. The cause of this injury was a protruding bracket which has no current purpose in that the item it supported has been removed.

This is therefore what the proposed action should be centred on, and legal advice should be sought, both for any compensation for the injured party and for any action on a breach of health and safety policy. If the poster is genuinely keen to ensure that such an occurrence is prevented in the future then I would suggest a visit to health and safety at the local council should be the first stop, followed by a visit to a non ambulance chasing solicitor who will advise properly, perhaps the family solicitor who looks after day to day legal stuff such as family wills and conveyancing who will have knowledge of the family. The fees for any action can be claimed along with any compensation.

As this is a chain of pubs / restaurants I would also be surprised if the management have not already put in motion any actions required to minimise problems which could occur from a serious accident where paramedics were summoned and a customer needed to be taken to accident and emergency for treatment. No manager who values his or her job would have ignored such an occurrence and hoped no one at Head Office would get wind of it.

lisyloo

at the end of the day she did not have to sit there, she could of asked to be seated elsewhere.

The responsibility for Health & Safety largely lies with the restaurant.
They are running a business so they are meant to make check themselves (where appropriate) or get in the properly qualified professionals where appropriate.

It is not the responsibility of Joe public to be qualifed in health & safety,
Clearly none of us would deliberately sit on barbed wire or walk through a big spill of oil - but we are only expected to behave reasonbly (and that includes drinking alchohol) we are not expected to be qualified or inspect the premises before we use them.
I would suggest the OP gets professional advice as some of the comments on here are way off the mark.

Bantex_2

How many other people have fallen off this step would indicate if it was dangerous or not.

my_names_dave

I wonder whether this is actually the fault of the contractor who dealt with the refurbishment? Removing the bracket should really have been done along with radiator istelf.

But no matter I suppose, the restaurants insurers will no doubt try to pass the claim along the line if they feel it necessary.

lisyloo

How many other people have fallen off this step would indicate if it was dangerous or not.

How would you find that out?
The restaurant are hardly likely to volunteer incriminating evidence.