A couple of months ago, we wrote a post about a complicated slip and fall situation. The case spawned numerous other pieces of litigation outside of the actual slip and fall incident itself. If you want to review that intriguing episode, click here. Today, we want to write about another slip and fall incident — albeit one that has another set of bizarre circumstances, even though they aren’t as outlandish as our previous article.
In this case, a woman was riding a bus in Palm Beach County when she fell. How did she fall? Well, she hadn’t taken her seat yet after getting on the bus, and the bus driver stepped on the accelerator before she could get her seat. She slipped on a wet spot on the bus and fell, hurting her knee and suffering a back injury.
The woman sued the Palm Beach County transit — Palm Tran — for the incident, claiming that drivers should wait and make sure that passengers are in their seats before stepping on the gas pedal. The lawsuit was recently finalized, with a jury awarding the woman in the case $478,000 for the injuries she suffered.
You may not think of buses, or even public transportation in general, as a legal sphere where premises liability or slip and fall incidents would apply. But this story shows that people and companies are responsible for their premises — even if that premises is mobile. Patrons expect, and have the right to, a safe premises.
Source: Sun Sentinel, “Jury awards $478K to woman injured in Palm Tran bus fall,” Skyler Swisher, Oct. 18, 2016
Subscribe To This Blog’s Feed