By: Russell Keener  —  September 1, 2011
 

Each day peo­ple slip and fall. Some­times they fall from clum­si­ness, but other times they fall from slip­pery or unsafe sur­faces. Sim­ply stated, slip and fall acci­dents typ­i­cally occur because we do not con­sciously rec­og­nize a change in the sur­face we are walk­ing along, usu­ally no more than 10 or 20 feet in front of us. How­ever, if we can see the haz­ard in our imme­di­ate vicin­ity, it is usu­ally eas­ily rec­og­nized. At The Keener Law Firm, our attor­neys are painfully aware that all too often prop­erty own­ers fail to make pedes­tri­ans aware that sur­faces are poten­tially dangerous.

Think about the last time you saw a “Slip­pery When Wet” sign. You imme­di­ately adjusted your walk to assure your bal­ance and to try and pre­vent slip­ping. We do this for icy roads, wet floors and uneven side­walks and walk ways. How­ever, when a per­son is not alerted to a dan­ger­ous sur­face ahead, that is when acci­dents can hap­pen! These acci­dents can result in either minor or seri­ous injuries, or even death in some cases. That might be hard to believe, but one small acci­dent can change your future.

Many times these acci­dents can occur as we are walk­ing into a pub­lic place of which we are unfa­mil­iar. It’s the unex­pected that can lead to injury. When walk­ing in a pub­lic place such as a shop­ping mall, restau­rant, retail store or park­ing lot, we have rights to be warned or cau­tioned about impend­ing risks and dan­gers. When there are signs indi­cat­ing a haz­ard and we pro­ceed ahead, we assume at least par­tial respon­si­bil­ity. It is at those times when no indi­ca­tion is given of the poten­tial dan­gers that prop­erty own­ers may be held respon­si­ble for costs asso­ci­ated with injuries we may incur.

Yes, a lack of warn­ing for slip­pery or dan­ger­ous sur­faces is the cause for many acci­dents, but another cause of acci­dents is often times insuf­fi­cient light­ing. In order for the aver­age per­son to see well ahead, walk­ing sur­faces should be evenly illu­mi­nated at a level of bright­ness that makes it easy to see.

Slip and fall acci­dents occur because foot con­tact with a sur­face is bro­ken. For exam­ple, you are walk­ing through a super mar­ket on what seems to be safe foot­ing when you sud­denly step in an area that has just been wet mopped. Essen­tially, you have no secure foot­ing at this point, and you lose equi­lib­rium as you attempt to right your self. This leads to a fall which could result in seri­ous injuries includ­ing spinal cord or head injuries, sprained ankles or frac­tured hips.

Clean­ing meth­ods and floor fin­ishes used by cus­to­di­ans can also often cause slip­pery floors. While some fin­ishes make a floor less slip­pery, oth­ers that are used to beau­tify floors can actu­ally make the sur­face more dan­ger­ous. One paste prod­uct used to give floors a lus­trous shine is called car­nauba. When used cor­rectly, this prod­uct offers safe walk­ing sur­faces. It is when the mate­r­ial grav­i­tates toward the outer edges of the walk­ing path that the build up becomes dan­ger­ous due to the soft­ness of the wax mate­r­ial con­tained in the product.

When should you con­tact an Atlanta slip and fall attorney?

It is a good idea to con­sult with a lawyer any­time you sus­tain a slip and fall acci­dent with injuries, when you feel cer­tain that the acci­dent was not your fault. Whether indoors or out, prop­erty own­ers are required to post cau­tion or dan­ger signs alert­ing pedes­trian to poten­tial risks. Slip and fall acci­dents result in thou­sands of seri­ous injuries every year. You may be enti­tled to com­pen­sa­tion of costs related to your injuries includ­ing med­ical expenses, lost wages, reha­bil­i­ta­tion and more when it is deter mined that another party was negligent.