‘Dazzling’ City Centre Pavement Leaves Pensioner Badly Injured

This unusual story comes from sources at The Daily Mirror and tells of the horrific facial and limb injuries a 74 year old lady suffered when she fell after slipping on a kerb she had difficulty seeing. The street in Lincolnshire has been revamped with colourful paving both on the road and the pathway, making the kerb allegedly difficult to spot.

North East Lincolnshire Council are now receiving calls to make the area safer and more than 50 people have been said to have signed an online petition.

It’s never nice to see anyone fall over and injure themselves, but it can be especially worse when the victim is elderly. Being more vulnerable to accidents and more susceptible to more serious injuries can leave elderly accident victims suffering badly. The lady in this story suffered a broken nose, horrific facial soft tissue injuries, and foot and ligament injuries as well.

She alleges that there is a lack of distinction between the pavement and the road where the kerb is, making it difficult to see. She suggests that even something as simple as a painted white line can help. She has complained to the council, who have confirmed they will investigate the matter in the normal way. However, the report mentions that the local ambulance service has confirmed there have been no significant increase in call outs since the new paving was put in place.

So I suppose the question that most people are keen to know the answer to is whether the victim here has a reasonable argument in law for what has happened. If you look at the photos, I certainly agree that there does appear to be a difficulty in differentiating between the paving and the road. But does this make the council negligent?

There have been successful cases in the past where hazards have not been clearly visible enough. Many public establishments have white lines painted on steps, or you may have seen black and yellow markings in places as well. There can be an argument in law that a dangerously masked hazard is negligence, and there is a duty to warn people of them. Another classic example is the use of signage for low roofs or ‘mind the step’ notices.

But the question as to whether negligence can be proved in this particular case remains unknown. In all honesty, it is difficult to judge from the photos on the report. Judging from the viewpoint of the two images that show the street in question, you can see on the opposing side of the road that there is the small lip where the edge of the kerb is. Looking at the right one, this is difficult to spot.

Claims against the local authority are inherently difficult to win unfortunately. But that should never put you off if you genuinely feel that your accident could have been avoided.