Injured at Work

lcfceaves31

Hello,
I am new to posting in this forum, apologies if it has gone in the wrong place.
My wife had an accident at work (a pub/hotel chain) last night, injuring her elbow (to what extent we will find out today), but is in a lot of pain and cannot straighten it.
She was going down into the cellar, the stairs were wet due to the rain and slipped. She grabbed hold of the banister to stop herself falling and it came out of the wall! So she and the banister went down 5/6 stairs to the bottom. Luckily she didn't bang her head, and so after she had filled out the accident report book with the duty manager, she was allowed to go home, so we could go to our local minor injuries unit.
Their advice, was visit A&E in the morning of the closest hospital and get an x-ray because they thought she'd probably fractured her elbow.
My question is... surely they are liable her for a safety aid (being the banister) coming out of the wall? It is there to do a job, is it not? I just wondered if anyone has any sort of expertise on this sort of thing and give any advise on what to do next (if anything) regards to claiming against them etc. because if she has fractured her elbow, she will miss 5-6 weeks work...
Thanks in advance for anyone's help/advise.

tykesi

Funny how the first thing people think about when they have an accident is how much £££ they can get!

lcfceaves31

tykesi wrote: »

Funny how the first thing people think about when they have an accident is how much £££ they can get!

It really wasn't, hence why we went straight to hospital... it wasn't until I came into my workplace when someone said "there's a claim!" I had even thought about it! Which in all honestly, I wouldn't have taken any further, if she had not been so poorly treated in the past 6 months! I have lost all respect for them, and this tops it off.
Anyway, thanks for tarnishing me with that brush, should I just sit in the corner and forget the whole thing happened?

sangie595

lcfceaves31 wrote: »

It really wasn't, hence why we went straight to hospital... it wasn't until I came into my workplace when someone said "there's a claim!" I had even thought about it! Which in all honestly, I wouldn't have taken any further, if she had not been so poorly treated in the past 6 months! I have lost all respect for them, and this tops it off.
Anyway, thanks for tarnishing me with that brush, should I just sit in the corner and forget the whole thing happened?

How they have treated het in the last six months has no relevance to anything. If she wants too complain about her treatment then that is a separate matter and should not impinge on anything to do with the accident.

There are a few people on here who are good at health and safety, so I'm going to leave that to them to answer, but in order to make a claim you would need to speak to a lawyer, and it will depend to a great extent on whether there was a degree of negligence as to the prospects of a claim. But I can tell you that banisters are not there for someone to grab hold of after they fall, they are there to provide stability as you walk down steps so that you can stabilise yourself if you begin to slip or fall. Was she holding the banister to support her descent before the fall?

And I know for a fact that the pubs lawyers will ask what she was wearing on her feet, and if it was suitable footwear for someone who is aware that they need to go down steps which may be wet. Was it?

lcfceaves31

sangie595 wrote: »

How they have treated het in the last six months has no relevance to anything. If she wants too complain about her treatment then that is a separate matter and should not impinge on anything to do with the accident.

There are a few people on here who are good at health and safety, so I'm going to leave that to them to answer, but in order to make a claim you would need to speak to a lawyer, and it will depend to a great extent on whether there was a degree of negligence as to the prospects of a claim. But I can tell you that banisters are not there for someone to grab hold of after they fall, they are there to provide stability as you walk down steps so that you can stabilize yourself if you begin to slip or fall. Was she holding the banister to support her descent before the fall?

And I know for a fact that the pubs lawyers will ask what she was wearing on her feet, and if it was suitable footwear for someone who is aware that they need to go down steps which may be wet. Was it?

Good points. With regards to holding onto the banister before she slipped, I will need to ask her later. And regarding foot wear, they are just your bog standard office shoes (as she works at the Hotel reception) but ask her to help out with certain other tasks if it is quiet.
I will speak to a local lawyer first and see if there is anything in it. There might not be, but I wanted to ask, because of pure frustration more than anything born out of their treatment and arrogance towards her (which as yo mentioned has nothing to do with the accident).

HiToAll

I would phone injury lawyers for you

maninthestreet

Where there's blame there is a claim...

takman

What task was she carrying out by going into the cellar?. Is there a Risk Assessment covering this task?.

If the bannister showed no signs of being unsafe beforehand then they can't be blamed for it failing during the fall.

But slippery steps when it's wet is a fairly obvious risk and any Risk Assessment should have picked that up if the steps did not have any kind of anti slip material.

Ozzuk

HiToAll wrote: »

I would phone injury lawyers for you

I'd let him do it himself.

dickydonkin

tykesi wrote: »

Funny how the first thing people think about when they have an accident is how much £££ they can get!

It isn't funny actually.


Nobody goes to work with the intention of not returning home or getting injured during the course of their work through no fault of their own.


If a person suffers through the employer not fulfilling their legal and moral duties, then I have no sympathy for the employer and the injured party should be compensated for loss of earnings and suffering.


I wonder what your mindset would be if you or your family suffered an injury at work and was unable to pay bills or survive on SSP because an employer cut corners.


There are some comments on this thread that are way off the mark, however, without access to the actual scene of the accident, seeing what policies and procedures are in place etc. it would be unwise for me to comment on the causes of this particular incident.


However...............


If the stairs were actually in the cellar, did they get wet because a roof was leaking or did water encroach under a door for example?


Were the stairs in poor condition or just wet? If they are exposed to the elements, were there accumulations of moss or algae on the treads? What material were the treads made from - stone, tiles, steel etc? did they have anti-slip materials on the treads?


Is there a requirement for safety shoes/boots to be worn AND PROVIDED FREE in the cellar area? If not, then there should be as cellar floors (by their very nature) can get wet from various sources - not to mention the risk of injuries caused by kegs, cylinders, crates etc, however, a risk assessment of the area should have identified the type of footwear required - although I suspect a site specific assessment may not exist.


A correctly fitted handrail should easily be robust enough to withstand the forces of a falling person - irrespective of the velocities involved.


Was the OP's partner authorised to be in the area where the incident occurred?


If a fracture was the result of this incident, then this injury by default is reportable under RIDDOR regulations within 10 days of the incident occuring, however, if there is any other injury that requires the injured person to lose more that 7 days work (including weekends and even days the person was not scheduled to work), then that would instigate the 'over 7 day injury' element of the same regulations which would need to be reported within 15 days.


The apparent faulty handrail did not cause the accident, but may be deemed as a contributory factor into the severity of the fall (and resulting injury) and they really should have withstood the forces of a falling person.


The condition of the stairs is key here and as to why they were wet and if they were frequently exposed to inclement weather, what did the employer do to mitigate the risk of falling when the stairs were wet?


Unfortunately, there are more questions than answers, but all of the above would very likely be considered if a personal injury claim was submitted.

lcfceaves31

dickydonkin wrote: »

It isn't funny actually.


Nobody goes to work with the intention of not returning home or getting injured during the course of their work through no fault of their own.


If a person suffers through the employer not fulfilling their legal and moral duties, then I have no sympathy for the employer and the injured party should be compensated for loss of earnings and suffering.


I wonder what your mindset would be if you or your family suffered an injury at work and was unable to pay bills or survive on SSP because an employer cut corners.


There are some comments on this thread that are way off the mark, however, without access to the actual scene of the accident, seeing what policies and procedures are in place etc. it would be unwise for me to comment on the causes of this particular incident.


However...............


If the stairs were actually in the cellar, did they get wet because a roof was leaking or did water encroach under a door for example?


Were the stairs in poor condition or just wet? If they are exposed to the elements, were there accumulations of moss or algae on the treads? What material were the treads made from - stone, tiles, steel etc? did they have anti-slip materials on the treads?


Is there a requirement for safety shoes/boots to be worn AND PROVIDED FREE in the cellar area? If not, then there should be as cellar floors (by their very nature) can get wet from various sources - not to mention the risk of injuries caused by kegs, cylinders, crates etc, however, a risk assessment of the area should have identified the type of footwear required - although I suspect a site specific assessment may not exist.


A correctly fitted handrail should easily be robust enough to withstand the forces of a falling person - irrespective of the velocities involved.


Was the OP's partner authorised to be in the area where the incident occurred?


If a fracture was the result of this incident, then this injury by default is reportable under RIDDOR regulations within 10 days of the incident occuring, however, if there is any other injury that requires the injured person to lose more that 7 days work (including weekends and even days the person was not scheduled to work), then that would instigate the 'over 7 day injury' element of the same regulations which would need to be reported within 15 days.


The apparent faulty handrail did not cause the accident, but may be deemed as a contributory factor into the severity of the fall (and resulting injury) and they really should have withstood the forces of a falling person.


The condition of the stairs is key here and as to why they were wet and if they were frequently exposed to inclement weather, what did the employer do to mitigate the risk of falling when the stairs were wet?


Unfortunately, there are more questions than answers, but all of the above would very likely be considered if a personal injury claim was submitted.

Thanks for your reply and help on this.
Today, we found out there isn't a break thankfully, but just heavy bruising which is making it difficult to move it the moment and will result in a couple of weeks of work on statutory sick pay.

More details - Stairs have an anti-slip style tread on the edge/front. Her feet were wet because you walk through the outside which had been raining to get to the cellar door, so the stairs weren't wet until she stepped on them!
There is no footwear offered to use for these stairs
She has been advised to go down there by management in the past, to fetch cutlery and napkins etc. and nothing has changed there.
Knowing this, I am not sure whether we would get anywhere with any type of claim, even though I am extremely annoyed with how a hand rail can just 'come out' of the socket whilst using it to walk down stairs. 12 months ago, she was working there carrying our child, going down those stairs... if she had fell then, who knows what would've happened.