The Wicked Stepladder
Q: A wolf had damaged our chimney. Could we repair it ourselves? Should we hire a contractor? My stepmother did not know. When I returned from work, she asked me to inspect the chimney, gave me her tape measure and told me what to look for. Finding a spot among the tree roots, plants, garbage, rocks and gopher holes, she put up a ladder – which we had had for years, although no one had ever used it – and stood nearby. While climbing to the roof, I fell.
The Wet Mopping
Q: On Friday afternoon, the lobby of our building was wet mopped. In the course of this process, the maintenance workers were supposed first to remove the floor mats, and afterwards to mop the floor dry and put the mats back in place.
The Weak Flooring
Q: During some demolition work, I was assigned to spray the site with water from a water truck, in order to control the dust. The truck was filled with 5,000 gallons of water. I was driving the truck over the concrete flooring of the existing structure. Under the weight of my truck, the flooring gave way, and we plummeted to the basement level.
The Victim Who Cannot Remember
Q: My husband has no memory of his accident: his head injuries plunged him into a coma and resulted in post-traumatic amnesia. The police say that a truck in the left lane became disabled. Its driver got the truck to the far right lane, but then came to a full stop there, even though the truck had sufficient momentum to get onto the shoulder. The driver also failed to set off flares and place reflective triangles.
The Vanished Tape
Q: I was riding my bicycle on a sidewalk that was next to a large condominium complex. A month or two before, the City had excavated a portion of the sidewalk and backfilled it with a temporary patch, cordoning off the area with safety barrels and yellow caution tape. By the time of my accident, the safety barrels and yellow tape had disappeared.
The Treadmill
Q: Four times a week, if not more, I would exercise at the club. Every time, I would use a treadmill. One day, I had been standing in line beside a treadmill for almost two minutes, talking with another patron. Finally, I got my turn. The treadmill had not been turned off. Stepping on, I lost my balance and fell.
The Town is Cheating
Q: A police car collided with my vehicle. Within days of the accident, my attorney submitted a written request that both vehicles be preserved in their immediate post-accident condition. Despite this, the town towed the police vehicle to a remote, outdoor site in another part of the city. There, the vehicle was vandalized: the lights and siren were removed, and the wires were cut, precluding a meaningful examination of its immediate post-accident condition.
The Tower
Q: One day, at a century-old building, I was going down the exterior stairs leading to the basement. There I would punch-in at the office of my employer. I had just stepped down from the top step, which was still wet from rain, and I started to fall. The handrail did not begin until the third step down. I reached for it in order to stop my fall, but the handrail was out of reach. So I fell down five or six steps.
The Top of Heaven
Q: On the sixth floor, my co-worker and I entered the elevator. We pushed the button for the lobby. The elevator moved up and down. It shook and stopped. We were trapped! Over the intercom, the building's fire-safety director told us to stay calm. “Mechanics are on the way.” We sat on the floor of the elevator, and waited.
The Swinging Load
Q: At a six-story construction site, I was unloading some air-conditioner condensers from a delivery truck, and positioning them on pallets. One of these pallets became stuck under a side rail of the truck. The truck driver and the crane operator asked me to help place a jack under the stuck pallet. The driver would use a steel bar to pry back the side rail. The crane operator would use her crane to put tension on the pallet.
The Strip Mall
Q: My coworker and I got to the parking lot. It had been plowed, but we needed to remove some leftover snow in order to open the gate to our customer’s dumpster. After we had emptied and pushed it back, we started walking out. After a couple of steps, I slipped and fell on black ice, in the area that we had just shoveled.
The Staging Area
Q: My employer was engaged in rehabilitating several bridges that were located on a public roadway. For use as a staging area, my employer leased a parking lot. We were setting-up some lighting equipment for use in this project. While I was attempting to get the equipment to my pickup truck, I tripped on debris. My accident occurred in that parking lot, next to the roadway where the bridges were located.
The Spit Wad
Q: During lunch period in the high school cafeteria, another student threw a foul-smelling spit wad at me. I went over to his table, and he challenged me to a fight. Instead, I returned to my table. At the end of lunch period, in order to go to my next class, I went out to the stairwell. With three friends, he blocked my access and proceeded to punch and kick me for half a minute.
The Sinking Sidewalk
Q: On a sidewalk in New York City, a fire hydrant stood close to the edge of a depressed, irregular asphalt sidewalk flag, next to the curb. There, my foot became caught in a hole. As I understand it, at one point, the hydrant had become broken at the base, and the City repaired the hydrant and refilled the excavation around the hydrant with blacktop. In subsequent years, on at least four occasions, the City again performed maintenance.
The Sidewalk Law
Q: In the City, I was walking on the sidewalk when I tripped over a raised sidewalk flag and fell.
The Show Must Go Off
Q: At the Lagoons, I was conducting the first rehearsal for my play, walking toward the stage and giving directions to the actors. Although the stage was lit, the area where I was walking was dark. All of a sudden, my right foot went off an unguarded edge of the walkway, and I fell into a deep water-filled trench.
The Shoveler
Q: In the parking lot of the strip mall next door to my home, leaving Dan’s Deli, I slipped and fell on a patch of ice. Although the Deli was just a tenant, Dan would often do the snowplowing. The weatherman says that, that morning, snow had fallen at a nearby airport. But I am sure that it did not snow or rain that morning in our neighborhood.
The Short Police Truck
Q: At work for the police department, I was helping to load a wooden police barrier onto a police flatbed truck – standing at the rear of the truck and holding the barrier. All of a sudden, another officer pushed the barrier into my chest, causing me to fall backwards and off the truck, into the street.