injured while shopping

[injurydilemma]

I have NC for this as I will be posting quite a bit of detail.

I slipped on a piece of fruit on the floor in a very big, well known supermarket cafe area.
I fell heavily onto a hard tiled floor.

My knees, arm and wrist/hand were badly bruised and I was very shaken up.

Some other customers helped me up, then a member of staff approached and offered to escort me to customer services. I was on my way to the loo, and had already ordered my food, so I said I would like some ice to put on my bruised hand, and I would see how I felt after a sit down. I showed the staff member where I had slipped.

When I went to loo I checked my shoes and there was still squished banana on the heel of my right foot, which I cleaned off.

By the time I had finished my coffee and snack, the floor had still not been cleaned, so I asked a staff member to clean it in case anyone else slipped. she cleaned it up, commenting that it was banana.

I decided I would report the incident to customer services.

They called a first aider to check my injuries. It transpired there was no first aider on site. After 2 calls and a 30 minute wait I asked to see a manager and got the incident recorded. They called a first aider from the petrol station - right at the other side of the shopping centre car park.

The upshot is that 7 days later I am still in severe pain from bruised, possibly broken ribs. I can't drive and it is causing problems with my employer/job.

At no point has anyone from the supermarket enquired/contacted me.

My DS thinks I should claim compensation. This is not something that is in my nature to do, but OTOH, I have had a rotten week, still in a lot of pain with severely reduced mobility, and I think their approach to H&S leaves a lot to be desired.

Sorry about long post.

Any thoughts?
TIA

[wowfudge]

Have you been to see your GP to be properly checked over? If you had painkillers/a doctor's note that would surely help and help with your employers.

I'm not sure about the H&S requirements so can't comment on the rest.

[injurydilemma]

I went to the walk in centre and saw the doctor there. I thought I might need an Xray so went there rather than wait for a GP appointment.

They said they don't Xray ribs ever, because there is nothing to be done other than rest and painkillers.

[Penfold007]

You would need to be able to prove 'blame' and 'negligence' along with actual loss, such as loss of earnings. There are plenty of good personal injury solicitors you can consult but also check your home insurance you may have legal cover with the policy. Hope you feel better soon.

[OllyBJolly]

What has your loss been? Have you had time off work? Any loss of earnings?

Unless there has been any material loss then it's unlikely to be worthwhile making any kind of legal claim. It was an accident. It's unlikely to have been a store employee who put the banana on the floor, and they may not have known it was there. If you do have legal insurance, then do get an opinion from them.

If not, you might be better to send a strongly worded letter to the store manager, copy in the head of customer service for the organisation.

[PinotPony]

You'd need to prove breach of duty of care i.e. that the store failed to take reasonable steps to prevent a foreseeable accident.

Most trip and slip claims against supermarkets fail because they usually have a system of regular inspection to check for spillages. And often they have mats around the fruit / veg / flowers areas. These are reasonable measures, they aren't expected to clear up every spillage immediately, especially if they don't know about it. Much will depend on how long your banana had been laying on the floor...but you won't have that information. It may have been dropped by another customer 3 mins earlier...

Ask the store manager for the risk assessment, accident report form and inspection records. Unless you can show there were no mats and no regular inspections, you're unlikely to get anywhere with it.

Sorry to not be more positive but I'm a personal injury lawyer and know from experience how hard it is to establish such claims.

Hope you feel better soon.

[injurydilemma]

Well - nearly 2 weeks on and I am still in a lot of pain.
Unable to drive, taking a lot of painkillers. Had to stop the stronger, anti-inflammatory ones because they were making me feel so sick. Even breathing hurts, so the thought of vomiting is not good.
I am managing to get to work because I am able to get a lift. Public transport is out because I can't carry anything. I am managing to do the most important aspects of my job because it mostly involves sitting at a desk and talking to people.
I have emailed customer services twice, but have just had an automatic "we have received your email" response.

Any advice as to how I can get them to reply to me?

[injurydilemma]

Pinotpony - the piece of banana was on the floor between the cafe area and the toilets. It was still there 15 minutes after I had slipped on it. I had to ask a member of staff to come and clean it up. Another customer could easily have slipped on it.

The floor of the cafe was covered with food spillage for the entire time we were in there.

[LibrariesGaveUsP0wer]

Tweet them. I have emailed twice about slipping on produce in your store. No one is replying.

I am not sure you would get far with a claim (lawyer but not negligence ) but they should apologise and explain what they can do to help

[ohidoliketobe]

Not sure if laws have changed recently, but about 5 years ago my Gran was injured by collapsing shelves in well known department store and she was awarded compensation. No evidence of loss of earnings required as she was retired. She didn't even have to do anything the store and head office were so mortified they arranged everything for her.
I'm not one for the whole where there's blame there's a claim, but given the circumstances of the actual incident and the lack of contact since I would be giving a call to a local firm who can deal with personal injuries

[Floggingmolly]

It sounds awful, but really; is it anybody's fault? The other side of the coin is that you also failed to see the bit of mushed up banana on the floor, otherwise you would have walked around it.

[ajandjjmum]

My then 86 year old mother fell off the stool at the opticians, and broke her wrist. The stool had castors and no back or arms, and she was asked to move up to a particular piece of equipment. She was in pain for weeks, and her wrist still aches 3 years later.

The optician turned up at home with a huge bunch of flowers and a very worried look on their face.

DM took the view that it was as much her fault as theirs, and as long as they replaced the stool to something more appropriate, she was happy.

Having said that, I would tweet the store as Libraries suggested - they need to learn from their mistake, but personally I couldn't be the sort of person who claims for accidents.

Hope you feel better soon.

[ImperialBlether]

FloggingMolly, are you really blaming the OP for not seeing the banana? Really?

[Floggingmolly]

If she didn't see it, why would the cafe staff be deemed negligent for not seeing it either? I hate the mindset that whenever something crappy happens, the immediate response is to look for someone to blame.
Shit happens.

[ImperialBlether]

Because it's the staff's job to look out for things like that. It's their job to keep the floor tidy so that accidents are avoided. They're not meant to rely on being told by customers, but if they are told then they should act quickly. They didn't do that, either.

[AnchorDownDeepBreath]

In terms of monetary loss, what can you quantify?

Pain and suffering is quite difficult to claim, unfortunately, especially on its own. Case law shows that claims of negligence relating to tripping against supermarkets rarely win - if they can show a rota that checks for spillages every so often (hourly is most common), that's usually enough.

You'd be more likely to be offered compensation from the supermarket, generally.

Although their slow response to you and lack of any goodwill gesture so far suggests this may have been escalated to legal and they are probably assessing liability and the risk of offering you compensation or apologising, as this can suggest liability. Legal departments are notoriously slow. Have you tried calling? That's less easy to ignore than social media or letters, and you might get a timeframe to expect a response.

[LibrariesGaveUsP0wer]

I would just reiterate what Pinot said earlier.

A banana on the floor is not like shelving. Shelving doesn't randomly collapse. Someone has installed it incorrectly, maintained it incorrectly or loaded it incorrectly (or, more rarely, there is a design or manufacturing fault).

Items dropped on floors happen dozens of times a day, so it would all be about the systems in place to locate them and clear them. Whilst not cleaning up immediately isn't great, it doesn't show causation. It doesn't prove anything about what happened before you slipped. And what happened before you slipped is what would matter for a legal claim. That banana wasn't in an area you'd expect much food mess and it could have been dropped 90 seconds before you trod on it.

Also, as has been said, you don't get massive pay outs for minor injuries that don't cause long term ill health or financial loss. It would be a very small amount of money.

[injurydilemma]

Just to update.
I have just had a call from their customer service manager who was very nice and apologetic.
He agreed with me that the spillage should have been cleaned up immediately, not 15 minutes later, as somebody else could easily have slipped in it.
He agreed that the floor should not have been left covered with large quantities of dropped food for over half an hour, given that it wasn't exactly busy.
However, he did explain that the store has no legal obligation to have a first aider on duty. That did surprise me.
He sympathised with me regarding the fact that I am still in a lot of pain and not able to to do much.
So there we are.
I am likely to be in pain and struggling for another couple of weeks at least, according to others I have spoken to who have had similar injuries.
I could have done without this TBH as I have an awful lot on my plate at the moment.
Actually - if the staff on duty had been a bit more attentive, had cleaned the floor straight away, and maybe offered to pay for my coffee, I would be feeling more kindly disposed towards them.
It does matter how these things are handled at the time IMO.

[MissFitt68]

You wanted a staff member to pay for your coffee?

Did you actually point out to the attending staff member that you slipped on banana and showed/pointed it out?

[SourceofInformation]

IME, it's your employer who would be compensated, not you. The only material loss is to your work and if you've been receiving full pay, you'd have to repay them with any compensation.

It happened where I work - the process required the injured party's employer to fill in forms about lost hours, then to state whether employer had lost earnings (she hadn't) and the compensation was awarded to the employer. she was not happy

[injurydilemma]

MissFitt68

No

Yes

If someone injured themselves in my home I would be very concerned and would probably offer them a drink, phone them later and ask how they were, send them a card - I get the feeling most people think I am making a fuss about nothing. Maybe I am.
I will just keep taking the tablets.

[Mintyy]

That sounds like a really nasty injury and thoroughly unpleasant experience. I am not sure if you are asking if it worth pursuing a claim but I certainly wouldn't blame you for trying.

[LibrariesGaveUsP0wer]

I do not think that you are making a fuss about nothing. It sounds horrible and really painful. I am so sorry you were hurt.

But people are responding to your specific question about legal action. That is where people are saying it probably doesn't sound like that scenario.

If your question is whether they dealt with it badly, absolutely. A bit of sympathy and understanding goes a long way. Sitting you down, getting you water...

[SoupDragon]

The upshot is that 7 days later I am still in severe pain

nearly 2 weeks on and I am still in a lot of pain.

Which is it? One week or 2?

[SoupDragon]

Have just seen the date of the OP. Never mind.

[MissFitt68]

You don't give any thing to eat/drink until assessed properly. Wondering why you didn't request an ambulance?