There are endless ways a person can get injured in their everyday life. From the commute to work or the walk up the driveway to grabbing a box of cereal from the grocery store, there is always something that can go terribly wrong. Unfortunately, there are some instances that we have no control over, and then there are times that injuries result from another person’s lack of care. When the negligence of another party bleeds into your life, resulting in you receiving bodily or mental harm, they need to be held accountable. One of the most common cases personal injury attorneys see is slip and fall cases. When a person finds themselves injured in a slip and fall case, they should not blame themselves and feel embarrassed. Without a spill or other object to slip on to begin with, this problem would have never arisen.
Nobody has the right to take you away from the life you love, and a slip or a fall has the potential to be very dangerous — even lethal in some cases. Between broken bones and broken egos, a lot of harm can come from these types of painful injuries. They are a fact of life, but that it doesn’t have to be this way. If people start being held accountable for their actions, maybe they will finally put precautions in place to reduce the staggering amount of slip and fall injuries that plague Americans year after year. At the end of the day, these are issues that can be prevented with a little more precaution and maintenance on the side of the companies responsible.
A study by the Center For Disease Control (CDC) shows that over one million citizens of the United States suffer a slip and fall injury every year. These injuries can be quite serious too, especially if the victim is in poor health. With the full magnitude of your body-weight crashing down on a hard surface, the damage can be irreparable. The statistics show that over 17,000 of these people die every single year as a result of these accidents. When it comes to the workplace, it’s been shown that 15% of all injuries on the job come from these types of falls. In turn, it costs companies, employees, and bystanders millions of dollars each year in lost wages and production. These events make up almost 15% of workers comp payouts as well, and rightfully so.
When broken down, these falls are filed into two different categories: Same-level falls and elevated falls. These are exactly how they sound, with same-level falls being much more common than their elevated counterparts. As one would imagine, elevated falls are much more serious though, with these types of falls being responsible for the majority of the deaths on record. When a fall occurs on a level surface, it is usually as a result of a slip or trip due to an unstable or slick surface that results in an injury to the victim. These happen quite frequently, with negligent employees popping up in every corner of any number of establishments from time to time. With all those mistakes and levels of incompetence, slip and fall accidents are bound to happen sometime.
Unfortunately, that same CDC report details that accidental falls account for nearly 20,000 deaths every year. When people are fortunate enough to survive, which the large majority of victims do, they are injured with various degrees of intensity. Estimates show that somewhere between 20-30% of victims will experience mild to severe injuries from their tumble. These can include broken bones, deep bruises, cuts, head injuries, and fractures. Of course, when broken bones are thrown into the mix, these accidents can quickly escalate to something more serious like severed arteries or infections down the line. When you’re dealing with a head injury in any capacity, the effects can last a lifetime. No amount of rehabilitation can thoroughly and completely fix a traumatic event that affects the head and brain.
In the worst-case scenario, these can be accidents that you don’t walk away from. In fact, slip and fall cases account for a whopping 46% of fatal falls for elderly citizens. If they’re lucky enough to survive, they could easily be looking at broken bones or injuries that can be impossible to recover from due to their age. In this way, slip and fall cases can alter someone’s life forever. Nobody has the right to put your life at risk like that.
If you were the victim of a slip and fall accident and the injury altered your day-to-day life in any way, you need your voice to be heard so somebody else doesn’t suffer the same fate as you.
The scariest part about slip and fall injuries, despite the fact that they are so prevalent in this part of the world, is that they can happen literally anywhere. Any place that has a floor can have the potential to play host to a slip and fall accident. Some of the most common places are nursing homes, grocery stores, and places of employment, simply because they have the most foot traffic and potential for employees to make the costly mistake of leaving the floor in a potentially slippery or dangerous state. Wherever they happen and whoever they happen to, the right team of injury attorneys can help you get the compensation you deserve for lost wages, medical bills, and overall pain and suffering.
Here at Blase Inzina Injury Attorneys, we know how much these accidents can hurt — both mentally and physically. Over the last 15 years, we have worked with countless clients who have had their livelihoods taken away from them due to a slip and fall accident. For something so easily prevented, it is heartbreaking to see these incidents unfold how they do. If owners would just take the time to make sure their businesses are safe, you wouldn’t be in this world of hurt to begin with. Luckily, you’re not done yet and you don’t have to be down and out forever. Together, we can work to help you get to a brighter tomorrow. To find out more about what our team of experienced attorneys can do to help, give us a call today at (337) 347-7177.