Postwoman trips and falls while delivering post - claim?

[azibux1]

Hi,

So the postwoman tripped on a step outside the house. The driveway has a gradual curve downwards where it stops to flatten out at the end. On the left of this is the house and there are slabbed steps (3) to the left that go up towards the door. She did not realise that the driveway was curved but the steps did not in fact curve with the driveway and knocked her foot into the first step and fell down, hitting her wrist on one of the higher steps.

My father asked if she's ok and she said yes.

A little while later she came back with peas/ice on her wrist and a gentleman presumably from the company / some kind of union taking photographs and videos re-enacting what they think happened / where she fell.

I thought I would be helpful instead of making them guess and showed a cctv recording to the guy of exactly what happened and he took a copy of this.

I see companies (solicitors) online that say for postal workers to get in touch if they've been injured on the job and one example is "tripping over dangerous pavements".

Can they make some sort of claim against the owner (my parents) of the property?

It did look very painful and yes she did trip on the step, but no other courier has done this in many deliveries across 10 years at the property.

Just wondering what might come of this and what is reasonable.

Thanks!

 

[azibux1]

Thanks all!

Sounds reasonable and yeah it might just be for internal injury report or something.

I definitely wouldn't say the step is obviously unsafe at all.

 

[azibux1]

Wouldn't the claim be against her employer anyway?

I figured as above it could be made against the owner of the property? But I think that's maybe only if there is a clear safety issue at the property, which was not the case here

 

[azibux1]

I'd bring a counter claim, she's obviously too unstable to deliver your mail How many times has mail been delivered without an accident?

Hahaha - 10 years worth of deliveries (lots lol) without any issues

As has been said it's probably for RM's internal injury book rather than anything else, as IIRC like all companies RM have to keep a record of injuries sustained on the job, but they also keep a record of "dangerous" addresses*, my guess is that the photo is to show the condition of the path for their injury book and to help decide if the path is dangerous.

Personally I doubt very much anything will come of it that you'll hear of unless the path is dangerous, which it doesn't sound like is the case given it sounds like it's in good condition just not quite what you expect (like a lot of front paths in gardens that have been landscaped/resurfaced etc).

If anything does come of it, which is very unlikely most home insurance policies have liability cover for just this sort of even, IIRC up to a couple of million is standard.


*Those where there is say a dog that's considered a threat, or paving that is unduly slippery in wet/icy conditions.

Pretty cool! Didn't know they had such a list

Why would you, in any shape or form, 'be helpful' to the people who are potentially going to take your parents for a ride?

At the time that aspect didn't cross my mind and just thought I was being helpful and allowing them to better document the injury for whatever need they have, only thought of it afterwards... doh!

It would be useful to see the steps and where they tripped.

In the meantime, prepare your letterbox for lots of poo.

Ha, will try grab a pic

Not sure whether its just me, but, seems bad form to come onto private property and start taking pictures/video without asking for permission first and explaining what the situation is, I don't think many people would have a problem with photos for an incident report, but most would like to know whats going on, and in the event they are refused, then the incident report would have to be limited to written statements of what occurred.

To be honest I stuck my head out of the window and he said something along the lines of "oh we're just here about the fall or whatever, do you mind if we take some pics?" - but I'm fairly sure at that point he'd already taken some lol

How many packages have been delivered via this walkway without incident and has anything changed recently that would make someone unable to safely traverse this path as they presumably were able to do so in the past?

I mean, if 100 people can walk a path without issue and I can't, I don't know that I could blame the path.

100s of parcels

I don't think the path can be blamed either

Not sure I would have just given the CCTV footage when there is the possibility of being sued even how crazy it sounds.

See above haha

Actually.....
Can you upload the CCTV trip here?
Me being a sadistic a hole I would probably find it funny.

Thx .

Hahahaha

There's CCTV of this incident yet no video posted.

I demand to be amused by someone falling over in video format !

:O

(First bit removed as pointed out by Siliconslave)

I also know at least 4 people who became posties when Creda closed down so sent a message to one of them asking "If you delivered to a house that you've been 100 times but on this occasion kicked something that has always been there, fell over and broke your arm, would you be able to claim off the homeowners?". The answer is "No".
You won't be getting sued.

Ha cheers!

Counter claim for damaging your step with her face

Now there's an idea should a claim come through haha

 

[azibux1]

I had a person slip when viewing a house and twist their ankle, had to get an ambulance to take them away.
They put a claim in almost 7 years later. Estate agents solicitors laughed at the claim, my insurance laughed at the claim.. they ended up settling for £7,500. Madness.

7 years?! HAHAHAHA that's mental

 

[azibux1]

I hope they knocked first and asked permission to do this! That would really annoy me. She'll be going off work for 6 months and filing a claim with her employer.

I help my son deliver his papers at the weekend and go to some very old, large & expensive properties along the sea-front. The number of times I've slipped on paths and steps due to them being so slippery & slimy when it's been raining is ridiculous. They just need a good scrub. Come very close to putting my back out. I've considered knocking to express my concern, not for me, but my son, but I doubt they'd do anything other than complain about me to the newsagent.

I do wonder / doubt they would have asked had I not called out from the window. I reckon he'd already taken some pics by that point despite asking when I called from the window. Polite thing to do would have been to ring the bell regardless as soon as they arrived.

 

[azibux1]

Update! Saw her in the street again yesterday lol

No cast or anything so must be nothing broken I guess