When you send you child to school every morning, you should be able to trust that he or she is healthy and safe. School personnel have a duty to provide a reasonably safe environment for your child and to provide adequate supervision at all times. Unfortunately, when there are few adults attempting to constantly supervise hundreds of children, accidents are bound to happen. One accident that commonly occurs in and around a school building is a slip and fall accident.
Common injuries in slip and falls
While sometimes slips, trips, and falls will simply cause minor bumps or bruises, other slip and fall victims may suffer injuries that are substantially more serious.[1] These injuries include traumatic brain injuries from hitting their head, spinal injuries if they land on their neck, broken bones, internal bleeding, deep contusions, and more. Many of these injuries will send a child to the emergency room at least, while others may require extensive medical treatment. If the slip and fall accident resulted from negligent actions on the part of the school personnel, you deserve to recover for all of the medical bills and other losses you incurred as a result of the injury.
Causes of school slip and falls
Slip and falls can happen for a wide variety of reasons, some of which stem from negligence and some of which do not. With hundreds of people regularly traveling the same hallways and staircases every day in a school, it is no wonder that slip and fall accident occur on a regular basis. Sometimes, these accidents happen because a child is simply clumsy or lost their balance. Other times, slip and falls may be caused by the following factors:
- Wet or slippery floors
- Overly-worn carpet or flooring
- Cracked pavement
- Torn carpet
- Wires that are not properly secured to the walls
- Objects or debris left in walkways
- Uneven ground
- Dangerous stairs or railings
A school has the duty to keep the premises safe for students to use on a regular basis. When a school fails to correct a dangerous condition and a student sustains injuries, the victim should be able to fully recover financially. School cases can be particularly complicated and may involve complex legal issues, however, so you always want to consult with an experienced slip and fall lawyer in Philadelphia as soon as possible for help.[2]