Stairwell Accidents In Indianapolis

Even though most of us use them without thinking, stairwells are an everyday hazard. Americans experience an average of over 1 million emergency room visits due to stairwell accidents. In Indianapolis, there is additional risk of wet winter weather making for icy and snowy stairs. However, even if stairwell accidents are fairly common, they are avoidable for the property owners responsible for maintaining safe stairways.

When stairwell accidents happen in Indianapolis, our local premises liability lawyers could help determine who was actually at fault and how much compensation an injured person deserves.

The Dangers of Defective Stairwells

Indianapolis has building codes safe stairwells in residential and commercial buildings, which are intended to make stairs as safe as possible. However, older buildings may not always be up to code, and even newer buildings may have construction errors or hazards. Common stairwell hazards are not always obvious, and may include the following:

• Liquid spills- Even a few drops of liquid are enough to cause an accident.
• Loose carpet/bad flooring- A stair that shifts or breaks underfoot is unpredictable and dangerous.
• Bad floorboards- A broken floorboard is not always obvious until someone falls.
• Uneven stairs- Stairs of varying heights and lengths can cause someone to miscalculate their step.
• Bad handrails- Loose or missing handrails can cause someone to be unable to break their fall.
• Bad lighting- Lack of visibility is a major cause of stairwell falls and injuries.
• Obstructions- Stairs are not shelves or drawers and should not be treated as such.

Call an Indianapolis lawyer if any of these factors played into a stairwell accident which caused injury.

Property Owner Responsibility

In Indianapolis, building owners and managers may be responsible when someone is hurt in a stairwell accident. Building owners and managers have a legal duty to keep their stairwells safe under the theory of premises liability. This means they must show reasonable care to keep people in the building from being harmed by foreseeable hazards in the building.

Obvious hazards include things people could see, like an oil spill on the ground or a missing stair. Foreseeable hazards do not exist right now but could be assumed to exist. For example, if a leaking roof drips water into an outdoor stairwell in the winter, it is foreseeable that the water on the stairs will become ice, and then it is foreseeable that someone could slip on the ice.

When building owners and managers fail in their duty to show reasonable care, they can be held liable to the people who are harmed in stairwell accidents in their buildings.

Get Legal Advice From an Indianapolis Stairwell Accident Attorney

Even if stairwell injuries are not severe, they can cause more than physical pain and medical bills: a mere badly sprained right ankle can make driving to work impossible. However, your time to file a claim is limited, especially if the claim is against a government entity.

If you have been injured in a stairwell accident in Indianapolis, contact one of our personal injury attorneys right away to ensure that any claims you may have will be brought in a timely manner so you can be compensated.