Getting out of a Court Case - Accidents do happen!
This blog post is simply a way of saving me a shit load of time later. See I was witness to an event that I just know is going to come up as a law suite.
So here goes.
At approximately 11:40 on Monday the 15th of July I was walking on the northern side of Glenferrie Road near the intersection of Barkley Ave having just finished an appointment at the Cabrini Hospital to have my broken arm checked, when i saw some movement that caught my eye. I noticed a woman in her late fifties lying on the ground moaning. Having just suffered a nasty fall myself two days earlier I quickly walked the short distance to where she was lying to try and render assistance. This was somewhat difficult with shopping in one hand and my right arm in a sling. I helped her to sit with her back to the wall, at which point it was obvious that she had hurt herself quite badly. There were a couple of very nasty cuts to her face. These cuts were bleeding very heavily as well.
I asked her if she wanted me to call an ambulance, and after two goes, she said, no call my husbands paging service which I did at (11:45) He returned my call 3 min later at which point I told him that his wife had taken a heavy fall, our current location and that he should get here ASAP to take her to hospital.
A kind man from a computer store gave us a box of tissues and a few council workers stood around, one of which had a big bottle of water which she used to clean her hands. She was in a lot of pain and obvious shock. During all of this the council workers were busy stating to me and anyone that would listen, that the pavement where she had tripped was another work crews area! I must say i found this some what distasteful at the time.
At 11:55 or there about her husband turned up. He parked the car on Barkley Ave carrying with him a bag of medical equipment (his wife earlier telling me that he was an eye doctor) came over kissed his wife on the forehead. Then things got weird. He stood back from her, told here to look up and took as photo of her with his phone. Then he walked away 10 meters took more photos of the scene, all the while I was still comforting his wife. He then got into a brief argument with two of the council workers, whilst I gathered the woman’s personal possessions and tried with only one arm to move a barrier so that he could get her into the car. By 12:05 he finally had her in his car and he said he was going to take her to Cabrini Hospital. I took a couple of photos of the scene at this point while 2 more council workers told me it was not their fault. One even made the very bad taste that the husband might have pushed her.
Now, this is the bit to get me out of going to court. Firstly it was obvious that there were road works. The noise alone would have alerted a blind person to the hazards. And the area the woman tripped did have signs etc. Also what the woman tripped on was a lot less rougher than say the cobble stones on the street. The husbands primary reaction was one of looking for some one to blame (and blame later such was his attention to detail in photographing the scene). It was an accident plan and simple. The poor woman tripped, as I did 2 days before hand in a different suburb. I feel for her, I really do having been forced to take a week off work and typing this blog entry via one hand hunt and peck. She will be in a lot of pain for quite some time and may well have some scares to show for it. The actions of both the husband and the council workers still makes me sick.
We have moved into a world where litigation is king and blame shifting sits right next to him on the throne.
Accidents happen, that is why they are called accidents.
