I Fell in a Hole – Help!

I Fell in a Hole – Help!

If this has happened to you, you’ll know that this is no laughing matter. You’re walking along when you suddenly fall due to a manhole collapsing beneath you, or because the cover is missing. Or perhaps you fall due to an open cellar or trap door in a pub. Maybe there is a hole in the ground that is being worked on and it isn’t covered or cordoned off and you end up falling in it. Perhaps you’re on a building site working and you fall in a hole.

However it has happened, you may have the right to make a claim for personal injury compensation.

Depending on the circumstances, there are several laws that can apply:

Public Street / Area

Here we have The Highways Act 1980 that puts a duty on councils and local authorities to maintain the highway to a safe standard. But if it’s a manhole, it could be privately owned land and may fall within the control of a water company or electricity board for example.

If work has recently been carried out to an unsafe standard and this has caused the accident, we could look at the New Road and Street Works Act, or if work is ongoing in an area where the responsibility is with a company working on the road, there can be a general negligence claim in failing to make the area safe.

Generally speaking, if the hole is a maintenance issue, winning or losing a claim comes down to what reasonable knowledge the owner of the hole had that it was dangerous, and / or whether they have systems of maintenance and inspection to spot such hazards. If it’s a failure to ensure a known exposed hole is safe, it can be clear negligence.

In a Private Owned Area

If it’s in a pub or a shop, we have The Occupiers Liability Act that means the owner of a premises must take all reasonable steps to prevent an injury occurring. Leaving holes not cordoned off or unguarded is, of course, a breach of these regulations and you may have a good shot at winning a claim.

Even if it’s the fault of an employee of the premises, the owner is still liable to compensate you.

At Work

We have loads of rules and regulations for workplace claims, but the main one here would be The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations which puts a duty on an employer to literally ensure that “the floor, or surface of the traffic route, shall have no hole or slope” – to quote Regulation 12 (2) here. I think the law there is quite clear. Whether its a failure directly on the employer or of a colleague to ensure a hole is not a danger, you stand a good chance of winning a claim.

What to Do

Simple – call our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75 and leave the rest to us. We’re a specialist personal injury law firm and we can take your claim on and submit the claim form (where applicable) on the very same day you speak with us. That means no waiting around and filling in lengthy forms or paperwork – in one simple call we can be good to go.