Slip and fall accidents occur every day in our country and are the leading cause of emergency hospital visits. Our Miami personal injury law firm we investigate several hundred incidents a year. Not all slip and fall accidents are viable personal injury cases. That is because in order for someone to have a legal claim for compensation against the property owner in a slip and fall case they must prove each of several elements. In other words, simply slipping and falling or tripping and falling at a Florida business does not mean that the property owner is legally responsible to compensate the victim- regardless of how serious the injury is.
FATAL FALL DOWN ACCIDENTS
Statistically, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more women will experience a slip and fall or trip and fall accident than men. And the most common injury from a fall is a fracture or broken bone leading to emergency hospital visits. The most serious fractures resulting from a slip and fall usually involve the hip or pelvis. And while fall fatalities accidents are nearly equally divided between men and women, in non-workplace accidents men are nearly twice as likely to die to fall at work than women.
COMMON CAUSE OF SLIP AND FALL ACCIDENTS
The most common cause of a slip and fall accident is the flooring. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), floors and flooring materials contribute directly to more than 2 million fall injuries each year. That is in large part due to the lack of rules compelling manufacturers to provide consumers with information on the how slippery particular surfaces can be. The slipperiness or slip resistance of a floor is called the coefficient of friction or COF.
In fact, with the exception of the ceramic tile industry, no other floor covering manufacturers test their products COF or even have adopted a uniformly approved testing methodology. Today, most ceramic tile manufacturers still refuse to label the slip resistance of their products. And other floor covering manufacturers who do not test or label their products at all including Ceramic tile (porcelain), Natural Stone (marble, granite, etc.), Resilient Flooring (vinyl), Laminate, Wood (bamboo, cork, etc.), Floor Finishes, Paints, and Coatings. As a result, when these surfaces become wet from humidity or spills they can be unreasonably slippery putting individuals at greater risk for falls.
Until flooring manufacturers are held to a higher degree of accountability to label their products and to always apply slip-resistant surface additives- slip and fall injuries will continue to cause serious accidents and injuries in our supermarkets, apartments, shopping malls, theme parks and cruise ships.
When our office is retained to investigate a slip and fall accident one of the very first things we do is retain an expert engineer to inspect the scene of the accident to obtain valuable information and in particular to perform an examination of the surface of the area where our client fell to test the coefficient of friction. It is particularly important to perform this testing as close in time to the date of the accident as possible before a defendant removes, modifies or destroys the flooring.
SLIP AND FALL CLAIMS CONSULTATION WITH A LAWYER: 1-866-597-4529
Our office offers free initial consultations to anyone who may have sustained a slip, trip or fall accident at a Florida business or while onboard a cruise ship. Call our office today and speak with an experienced slip and fall premise liability lawyer about your potential claim. Aronfeld Trial lawyers have over 30 years of combined experience representing the injured and their families in claims across the State of Florida. Contact us today toll-free 1-866-597-4529, 305-441-0440 or via email at [email protected]. We are ready to help you.
