Court puts spotlight on ‘tripping hazard’ pavement

The Gibraltar Government faced court action over the state of the pavement outside the old airport terminal after a woman tripped and ended up in hospital.

The woman filed a personal injury claim for £1,500 but was unsuccessful because she was unable to identify exactly where she fell.

She gave evidence at the Supreme Court earlier this month and described how she tripped on raised metal plates protruding from the pavement when walking along Winston Churchill Avenue in September last year.

The Government admitted there were a number of ‘metal protrusions’ at the location but during cross-examination the claimant could not pinpoint which plate had tripped her up.

Supreme Court Registrar Liam Yeats accepted there was “no doubt” that the claimant had fallen over but it was “fatal to her case” that she did not know the protrusion which tripped her up.

But in a judgement, he left no doubt as to the sorry state of the pavement itself.

“I was shown photographs of the pavement in question, to say that it was not in perfect condition would be an understatement,” Mr Yeats said.

“Aside from the metal protrusions, there appeared to be other potential tripping hazards due to uneven pavement tiling.”

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