A young girl suffered serious injury when she fell over 20 feet in to a concrete- lined storage area in County Durham. According to the BBC, the girl, a teenager who has not been named, suffered neck and spinal injuries in the fall. Firefighters had to use specialist equipment to rescue her from the disused quarry where the accident occurred but fortunately no-one else was hurt in the incident.
It is possible that the injured party may have a claim under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957. This states that the owner of a premise has a duty of care to anyone who visits that premise to keep it reasonably safe.
In this circumstance, even though the quarry was disused, the duty still falls on the owner to maintain it. However, if out of use then the quarry was most likely not open to the public and so the girl may have been trespassing. So, if this is the case, is there still a potential claim for liability against the owner of the property?
Under the Occupiers Liability Act 1984 the owner of the property still has a duty of care to a person who is not his invited visitor if:
- He is aware of the danger or has reasonable grounds to believe that it exists
- He knows or has reasonable grounds to believe that the other party might come in to the area where there is danger
- The risk is one against which he might reasonably be expected to offer some sort of protection
So, it appears that the owner of the quarry could still be liable for the accident if the area where the girl had the fall was known to him to be dangerous, but he might be protected from liability – if he took reasonable steps to offer protection. This might include warning signs or barriers to the area.
The girl is being treated at the University Hospital of North Durham.