Top Six Most Common Slip-And-Fall Hazards

It can happen when you’re taking a walk around the neighborhood, shopping the aisles in your local grocery store, or socializing with friends and family at a backyard barbecue: slipping, falling, and getting injured. Each year, over one million people require medical treatment due to a slip-and-fall incident, and roughly 30 percent of those people sustain severe injuries. This can lead to the need for surgeries, lost wages from time off work, growing medical bills, and in some cases, permanent injury.

If you’ve been injured in a slip-and-fall accident in Florida, your first step should be to contact a Florida slip-and-fall accident attorney who can carefully evaluate your case and strategize the best means for maximizing your recovery. This will involve determining how the fall occurred, what sort of injury you’ve sustained, what type of short and long-term medical treatment or therapy you’ll need, and the degree of negligence attributable to the at-fault party.

Your attorney should start with the basics: what caused you to fall? The following are the top six most common causes:

1. Slippery floors

A drop of oil, a recently-mopped floor, a cube of ice, or any other slippery substance on a floor can quickly lead to a slip-and-fall injury. In fact, this is likely the number one cause of slip-and-fall accidents. Property owners and managers have a duty to ensure that floors are clear from any slick or slippery substances, and to put up warning signs if they are unable to immediately remedy the situation. For example, if a store employee mops up a spill on a grocery aisle, a wet floor sign should promptly be placed where customers can easily see it. Failure to do this could mean a lawsuit based on negligence. Legal charges can also result from a situation where this type of negligence results in someone sustaining an injury.

2. Cords

Cords are a major tripping hazard, especially when they are hard to see from a distance, or are directly in a walkway. Often, they are used to power appliances that aren’t located near an outlet. Property owners and managers should be diligent in ensuring that cords are never placed where they could cause a person to trip and fall.

3. Poor Lighting

Parking lots, hallways, movie theater aisles, neighborhood streets, and bathrooms are common places where there may be insufficient lighting, which lowers visibility and leads to accidents. For instance, poor lighting in a parking lot could prevent someone from seeing a curb, leading them to trip, fall, and sustain potentially serious injuries. Premises should always have quality lighting so as to prevent these types of accidents. Property owners who fail to install and maintain good lighting—especially in heavily frequented areas—run a high risk of being sued for negligence in a slip-and-fall case.

4. Uneven Carpets Or Flooring

A single corner on a carpet that isn’t flush with the floor or a ripped area of carpet that protrudes from an otherwise even surface can cause someone to trip and fall. Even in areas where there is no carpeting, there could be defects in the flooring that present an uneven walking surface and set the stage for a trip-and-fall accident to occur. Walking surfaces should always be scanned for hazards such as these, and potential dangers should be immediately addressed.

5. Objects Or Defects In Walkways

From debris left behind or a banana peel; whatever it is, if it’s in a walkway where it doesn’t belong, then it could cause an injury. Property owners must regularly check walkways for safety and remove any possible hazardous materials. If the property owner is negligent, they are liable.

If you sustained an injury in a slip-and-fall accident in Florida, don’t hesitate to contact the slip-and-fall accident attorneys at Fenstersheib Law Group, P.A. You’ll find highly experienced, compassionate attorneys who know how to navigate the legal landscape of premises liability law and slip-and-fall personal injuries. These cases aren’t always easy to prove, but hiring a seasoned attorney who’s handled countless of these cases before will give you the best chance of obtaining a full recovery. Call 1-800-TellRobert, 24/7, Fenstersheib Law Group, P.A. has convenient offices in Florida located in Hallandale (main office), Miramar, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Orlando, Sarasota, Tampa, and Jacksonville.