QUESTION

If my mother slipped and fell on wet super market aisle, why did the store refused to give her an incident report?

Asked on Jul 29th, 2014 on Personal Injury - New York
More details to this question:
My mother was doing grocery shopping at a local supermarket when she suddenly slipped on wet floor and fell on her back. She wasn't able to get up for at least 30 minutes until my father arrived and helped her up but she wasn't able to walk so they sat her down. At first my father argued with them for not having a wet floor sign displayed. He was told they weren't mopping the floor, that was melted water from the freezer. Then my father requested to speak to a manager and my parents were told there is no manager on duty he is on vacation. This is something hard to believe considering it's a big chain supermarket and I don't believe they would let cashiers and stockers run the store while the managers on vacation. Anyway my mother was worried about her condition and didn't know whether she was able to work for the next couple days and asked for an incident report and she was refused every time she asked. They offered her Tylenol, which my mother didn't take. She tried to get up again but she couldn't so my father told them to call an ambulance. Luckily she didn't suffer fractures or any broken bones but two days later shes still hurting and isn't able to work. I'm very disappointed and angry with the way they treated my parents. Yes they are immigrants and English isn't their first language (they do speak English, they are US citizens) but that doesn't mean she doesn't have rights and it doesn't mean you can just send my mother home with Tylenol and complimentary bottle of water after she took a big fall and was injured. Why didn't they give her an incident report? Why didn't the manager or whoever was in charge come down to help her out but let the stockers and cashiers handle the situation? Why didn't they call an ambulance right away knowing my mom wasn't able to get up or walk? I would appreciate any answers or advice. Thank you in advance!
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1 ANSWER

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Attorney serving Syracuse, NY at Andrew T. Velonis, P.C.
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I don't think there is any requirement for them to fill out an accident report. It's a good idea, it's probably company policy, it may be required by their insurance company, and it's what we would expect them to do. Still, it's paperwork that is done by the corporation for it's own purposes, it's not something done for the benefit of the customer. As for calling an ambulance, from what I can tell they did call when your father asked them to. Until then, they had no way of knowing, would your mother just get up on her own, or would your father take care of the situation or whether an ambulance would be needed. Overall, this is a strange situation: I should think that the store would want the situation addressed immediately, not wait the length of time you describe with an injured, distraught customer in the store. You are right about their claim that there was no manager: stores have lots of mangagers, assistant managers, department managers, etc. Finally, it seems there is some mishigas regarding certain issues: your father was arguing about a "wet floor' sign when he should have been seeing to his injured wife; she was worried about not being able to work for a couple of days and wanted to start the paperwork on that even before she got up off the floor. Ask the store management if any of this was caught on their security cameras, that ought to put some worry on them.
Answered on Jul 30th, 2014 at 11:39 PM

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