I’m not much of a fan of train stations. There are too many people rushing around to catch their train in time, and they’re way too cold in winter when you need to stand around and wait for your (probably late) train. As a specialist firm of personal injury lawyers, we’re used to dealing with a wide range of claims for compensation; accidents in a train station are fairly common.
When you break it down, there are some strikingly obvious reasons why they are so common:
- People are rushing around.
- There are no bins in train stations to prevent terrorist threats; means most litter ends up on the floor!
- Most stations are not fully covered; the floor can end up easily wet in periods of bad weather, or it can be walked in by rushing travellers.
- The sheer volume of people means there is a likely greater chance of spillages and floor hazards; baggage on the floor can be a tripping hazard as well!
The common accidents we see in train stations involve people slipping over. As I’ve briefly touched on above, with no bins for people to put their litter in, food mess and general litter is often discarded on the floor. With the rush of people, spillages can easily occur, and people can very easily end up slipping on them. If it’s a Friday or Saturday night, anyone hitting the town with a few cans in hand for the journey may end up with some of their treasured alcoholic beverage on the floor!
If you have an accident in a train station, the usual law that dictates whether you can make a claim or not is the Occupiers Liability Act. Under this important piece of legislation, whoever is in charge of a premises, such as a train station, must take all reasonable steps to ensure that visitors to the premises are not injured. What is classed as reasonable is open to interpretation. Most places will have a policy of inspection and maintenance in which staff will tour the area and look out for hazards to clear them or rectify them as quickly as possible.
It’s not feasible for money to be spent on staff manning every corner of the premises so that any spillage can be immediately cleared away. Most places will do these inspections on an hourly basis or so. As such, whether you can make a claim is often down to whether the other side have a suitable policy of inspection and maintenance that they have upheld. If they can prove they have a good system and they have stuck to it, making a successful claim could prove to be difficult.
Give our expert claims team a call on 0800 634 75 75 for advice about making your claim for personal injury compensation.
