£7,500 settlement for blind lady who slipped and fractured leg

Louise Harper, a solicitor in Ashtons Personal Injury team, has obtained £7,500 for a lady who suffered a broken leg outside her home.

Ms M is blind and lives in sheltered accommodation. Immediately outside her property was a smooth concrete surface which became very slippery when wet. Ms M slipped as she left her property and suffered two leg fractures which required surgery.

Initially, liability was denied on the basis that there had been no previous accidents in 40 years and the exit is regularly used with no issues. Ashtons were aware of other accidents which they did not have reported.

After Ms M’s accident, the whole area was resurfaced to be a rough, non-slip surface.

After some back and forth, the defending party admitted there were no risk assessments in place and no controls to check for areas where residents may be injured.

Louise comments: “Given the property housed vulnerable residents, their duty of care was much higher and therefore the correct risk assessment and controls should have been in place to prevent an accident like this from happening.”