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#1 Posted : 15 October 2003 19:32:00(UTC)
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Posted By Iain Advice please, Within our site, we recently had an accident involving a slip/trip/fall due to a storm drain which was set approx 6cm into the road and hidden with leaves. The injury which resulted was a badly sprained ankle. btw there's no pavements just grass and trees! My questions are: Is this normal to have sunken drains this deep and are there any standards which apply? Even though there already is a robust road leaf clearence contract in place, can the employer be held negligent for the windy weather blowing the leaves out of the trees and the employee not taking care where he walked? Your thoughts will be appreciated, Iain
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#2 Posted : 22 October 2003 11:06:00(UTC)
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Posted By Dave Wilson Think the message here is, 'reasonable foresight' 1. can you foresee that autum comes and as such the leaves will fall from the trees? 2. Is it reasonable to assume that these will settle on the ground and cover the 'sunken drain' (Assume storm drain) therefore hiding the 'trip hazard' 3. Could you then forsee that someone could fall as a result of this and injure themselves? If so the 'occupier' could be held liable, however the amount of 'mitigation' taken to prevent this should be commensurate with the foreseable Risk. I would assume that there is a trip hazard all year round and even greater danger when autumn comes and therefore greater the effort to prevent this. Simpler to put storm drain covers as this will prevent this accident from happening all year round
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#3 Posted : 22 October 2003 17:50:00(UTC)
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Posted By Oliver Whitefield Iain To the best of my knowledge it is a standard design specification (in roads at least) that gulley gratings are set 6mm below the final road level. This provides sufficient recess to enable water to flow into them, whilst ensuring that they are not excessively deep. The highways agency website may provide general details on the level of ironwork below finished surfaces. 60mm however, would seem a little excessive. Oliver
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