As winter comes to an end and warmer weather takes hold, New Yorkers will venture outside. Many will enjoy the sunshine by spending time at their local parks or beaches. Unfortunately, many of these same people will suffer injuries due to slip and falls on dangerous surfaces that property owners do not adequately maintain.
Virtually every business, public area, supermarket, storefront, restaurant, or sidewalk is required by law to provide a safe surface for its patrons. If they fail in their duty to maintain safe conditions for you, it may be their negligence that caused your injury.
The experienced personal injury attorneys have successfully represented countless clients who have suffered harm in slip, trip, and fall accidents. We know what it takes to obtain the compensation you deserve with your claim.
Causes of Slip and Fall Accidents in New York
Many different types of dangerous conditions can give rise to a slip, trip, or fall accident in New York, including:
- Uneven pavement;
- Broken sidewalks;
- Loose tiles;
- Poor lighting;
- Slippery floors due to spilled liquids or other causes. These causes may include chemicals that are not adequately stored within their original containers with accompanying labels, allowing them to mix with moisture on the floor near an entranceway where water accumulates after rainfall or snowmelt;
- Failure to provide adequate warnings for hazards such as wet floors, broken steps, wet handrails, and dark corners in bathrooms or near loading docks;
- Cracked concrete steps. A common cause of these injuries is when a step suddenly shifts beneath the feet of someone carrying something heavy, such as an older person with heavy grocery bags in each hand or a parent towing two young children behind them. These types of falls are likely to result in broken bones and neck injuries if the slip results in the victim falling backward. On the other hand, they may be less severe if they have enough time to put down one of their items before losing their balance and falling forward onto the steps;
- Improperly stored rugs that lay over wet floors located outside entrances where water accumulates after rainfall or snowmelt;
- Unsecured mats, rugs, or carpets. These items can cause someone to slip if they are not correctly fixed in place along with the areas of a building where water accumulates after rainfall or snowmelt;
- Improperly located mats. For example, mats may be placed too far from entrances and exits on sidewalks and parking lots during the winter months when ice has formed due to cold weather.
- Puddles from outside a store’s entrance due to poor drainage systems or insufficient traffic control measures to keep water off the sidewalk. When these puddles are not correctly marked to alert passersby of a danger, they can cause serious injuries when someone slips and falls in them;
- Malfunctioning escalators and elevators. Although most people use these appliances without incident, complex machinery with moving parts is required by law to be transported from place to place, cleaned, and placed in safe working order regularly. In addition, matting that is worn down or folded over itself must be stayed flat so that it does not create a tripping hazard for customers who may have been drinking alcohol or wearing high heels or dress shoes that have thin soles instead of heavy boots;
- Inadequately lit stairwells where there are no safety lights or light bulbs have burnt out. This problem is prevalent in high-rise buildings where the door to a stairwell may be located inside an elevator lobby, making it difficult for building occupants to determine whether their path of travel will lead them into darkness until they are actually on the stairs.
In addition to these causes, unsafe conditions can also include outdoor hazards such as uneven sidewalks that are not shoveled within a reasonable amount of time following snowstorms and icy patches that remain on walkways long after rainfall ends due to poorly drained areas.
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Types of injuries from Slip and Fall Accidents in New York
Slip and fall injuries are among the most common personal injury claims that people file in New York state courts. Property owners have a legal responsibility to keep their premises safe for visitors and guests. If they fail to do so, and someone gets hurt due to their negligence, they can be held responsible for any damages that victims suffer under the law.
Slip and fall accidents typically cause different types of injuries than other types of car crashes or truck accidents, but some frequent problems include:
- Broken bones: Fractures, including broken wrists, shoulders, and hips, are some of the most common injuries that result from slip-and-fall accidents. Fractures, including broken wrists, shoulders, and hips, are some of the most common damages that result from slip-and-fall accidents.
- Back pain: One of the worst things about slip-and-fall accidents is that many victims don’t realize they’ve hurt right away because there’s no sudden impact or collision to deal with. Instead, people may get up and think nothing is wrong – but then, hours or even days later, discover they have slipped a disk all because of a trip and fall accident.
- Head injuries: Many slip-and-fall accidents can result in head injuries if another object, such as the corner of an end table or coffee table, hits someone in the head when they fall.
- Wrongful death: Since slip-and-fall accidents are often not serious at first, a victim might go home and not realize the extent of the injury they suffered. Sadly, this can result in wrongful death if something was wrong with their head or another part of their body due to the fall, and they never sought medical treatment to address it.
Some people who have been injured in slip-and-fall accidents file lawsuits against property owners because they believe that someone should be held accountable for those injuries – even though there was no intention to injure anyone.
In other words, slip-and-fall victims often seek compensation under premises liability law even when there’s no evidence showing that the defendant was negligent or careless before an accident occurred.
However, these cases are much easier for victims to win when they can prove that the property owner or manager did not do an adequate job of maintaining their premises.
Some signs that a slip-and-fall accident was foreseeable to the defendant include:
- Broken steps on a staircase
- Loose handrails or banisters on staircases or other walkways
- Cracks in the pavement, sidewalk, parking lot, or other surface areas people would be walking on
- Uneven floors throughout a building with loose boards, torn carpets, and tiles missing from the flooring surfaces or grout lines in between tiles. This also applies to outdoor areas like pool decks, balconies, and porches where materials are not up to applicable safety standards and regulations. The same goes for holes in any surface area that people may fall into, trip over, or otherwise hurt themselves.
These are just some of the many ways in which a property owner or manager can be held responsible for someone else’s injuries and should serve as an example of exactly why it’s so important to keep properties up to safety standards at all times.
It should also expand your understanding of how dangerous slip-and-fall accidents really can be and why you should always take them seriously even if you don’t feel anything is wrong with you after one occurs – because the symptoms only come later. They might turn out to be serious, long-lasting issues that you never thought could happen from such a seemingly harmless accident.
Takeaway
Call our firm today if you believe someone else’s carelessness may have caused your slip and fall accident in New York City. We have years of experience successfully representing clients who were injured in slip and fall accidents. So call us today to schedule your free case evaluation!