Accidents at locks - help needed

[Axe]

Hi,

In order to help Diane who fell from the walkway at Lock 93 on the Hanwell flight a year ago, I am trying to establish the number of incidents of this type that have occured in the past, specifically where someone has fallen from a walkway into the canal.

If something similar has happened to you or someone you know, please could you let me know.

I need to know....

1. Name

2. Date of incident

3. location

4. Was this reported to British Waterways

5. Injuries sustained or near miss

6. Why the insident occured.

 

Thanks in advance for your help in this.

Cliff Axe.

[Guest]

Hi,

In order to help Diane who fell from the walkway at Lock 93 on the Hanwell flight a year ago, I am trying to establish the number of incidents of this type that have occured in the past, specifically where someone has fallen from a walkway into the canal.

If something similar has happened to you or someone you know, please could you let me know.

I need to know....

1. Name

2. Date of incident

3. location

4. Was this reported to British Waterways

5. Injuries sustained or near miss

6. Why the insident occured.

 

Thanks in advance for your help in this.

Cliff Axe.

 

What about a FOI request to BW - that would elicit details of those that have been reported.

 

I suspect ones that haven't are going to of little value if you are building some sort of case against BW

[the grinch]

the likely outcome of anything like this will be yet more money wasted on silly fences etc.

[Yoda]

Hi,

In order to help Diane who fell from the walkway at Lock 93 on the Hanwell flight a year ago, I am trying to establish the number of incidents of this type that have occured in the past, specifically where someone has fallen from a walkway into the canal.

If something similar has happened to you or someone you know, please could you let me know.

I need to know....

1. Name

2. Date of incident

3. location

4. Was this reported to British Waterways

5. Injuries sustained or near miss

6. Why the insident occured.

 

Thanks in advance for your help in this.

Cliff Axe.

 

What footwear was she wearing?

[Gibbo]

If I trip up or fall over I tell myself to stop being clumsy. I don't try to blame someone else.

 

Gibbo

[sueb]

What was the problem with the walkway? They are some of the widest in the country.

Sue

[rallyfan]

Am I just cynical or do I see a claim on the horizon

 

At the very least, this could be the begining of the end of the campaign to get walkways over the top gates on the Lea

[AMModels]

I can answer 6 in virtually every case, the person concerned did not take enough reasonable care. It may be different in the OP's case but I would hazard 9/10 incidents are thus caused.

[OptedOut]

If I trip up or fall over I tell myself to stop being clumsy. I don't try to blame someone else.

 

Gibbo

 

Yep, another case of Darwin's Law, case closed.

[Axe]

I'm sure you all mean well, but I was searching for answers to unanswered questions.

 

the discussion point sttill stands for anyone who might be able too help.

 

Cheers

[County4x4]

I'm not surprised by the responses here to be honest. It seems that whenever anyone has an accident these days it has to be "someone else's fault" My brother in law came very close to getting crushed between his stationary wagon and a van when a speeding car overturned and hit them. The claim chasers were calling him before the day was out making sure he went to hospital and mentioned various pains etc.

 

I'm sure we would all sympathise with anyone having an accident to some degree, but personally (and as others have already said) if I fall over then I get up - if I can - and get on. I wouldn't even entertain the idea of claiming against anyone unless the walkway had collapsed with me half way across it.

 

I'm sure someone somewhere must have worked out how much extra we're all paying for insurance and so on, and how much extra is being spent on unnecessary H&S measures as a result of people claiming for everything upwards of a broken fingernail.

 

Andy

[DHutch]

Its not hanwell, but isnt this the sort of walk way we're talking about?

 

 

Its just screams 'if you can fall off me you deserve a medal". I have to admit, ive never fallen in the canal, or of a lockgate, in the 20 years ive been boating (from the age of two onwards) but at the end of the day, im still stuggling to work out what you going to use this information for?

 

Actually, i dont think i know anyone whos fallen off a lockgate at all. The only person i know who has fallen into a lock was the wife of a steamboater who lent back on a retractable dog lead suddenly, which then failed, causing her to fall backwards onto a boat. That said, i cant imagine it would be much fun if you did.

 

 

Daniel

[sueb]

Considering none of us know what happened or how badly the lady was injured we could be being a little harsh.

Sue

[alan_fincher]

It would be interesting though to hear more of the original incident, and the reason for the enquiry.

 

Does "walkway" mean one of the boarded decks attached to an upper gate, as Daniel has pictured ? It is indeed hard to think of a safer option on Grand Union gates, and this feature is, I believe, unique to south of Bulls Bridge.

 

Generally a fall from these would be a short one, probably into water.

 

Or are we talking about the balance beams of bottom gates, which are probably similar to many others on the Southern Grand Union.

 

I'm not sure why gathering general statistics about lock-gate "walkway" incidents will help the lady who has suffered some mishap here ?

 

Perhaps OP could explain why they feel it would ?

[Guest]

It's all a sign of the times, personally I blame the national lottery. It has created the concept of large financial gain for very little, if any pain.

 

Unfortunately a lot of people seem to see see an incident they are involved in as a pathway to great riches if there is the remotest possibility that some body may not have checked or maintained something or if there have been previous issues that should have alerted to the possibility of some sort of risk.

 

Fortunately in reality my understanding is that these 'claims' progress not very far at all. As often they are exposed as spurious or opportunistic well before they get anywhere near a court.

[denboy]

not wishing to offend the op, but if there is a problem with this particular lock people would be falling off it all the time,i treat all locks as potential hazards to be treated with care,especially tripping over them new bollards when its dark

[Hairy-Neil]

It's all a sign of the times, personally I blame the national lottery. It has created the concept of large financial gain for very little, if any pain.

 

You should actually be blaming the government's allowing of the 'no win no fee' system. They introduced it it to remove the burden to them of Legal Aid....

[PhilR]

You should actually be blaming the government's allowing of the 'no win no fee' system. They introduced it it to remove the burden to them of Legal Aid....

 

The government introduced it? - where do you get that idea from?

[Hairy-Neil]

Fortunately in reality my understanding is that these 'claims' progress not very far at all. As often they are exposed as spurious or opportunistic well before they get anywhere near a court.

 

My daughter had a car accident that bothered her and got her really down for a while when she received the claim. Fortunately it was exposed as an example of this behaviour when it became clear she slammed into the back of him because he pulled out of a layby straight in front of her when doing 60 on an unrestricted road. The tw@t was also uninsured and gave a false address and I ended up bearing the £1300 cost of the repairs to her car....

 

 

The government introduced it? - where do you get that idea from?

 

Ok, they allowed it. Prior to that solicitors were not allowed to tout for business...

[mayalld]

Considering none of us know what happened or how badly the lady was injured we could be being a little harsh.

Sue

 

I really don't think that the severity of the injuries has any bearing on this.

 

Lock gate walkways come with inherent dangers, which all canal users should be aware of, and it is a given that they will not afford the same degree of security to somebody crossing as might be expected from an ordinary pedestrian bridge.

 

Now, the OP is free to set off in pursuit of somebody to blame, but others will consider where their own interests lie.

 

It is entirely possible that the OP would manage to convince some soft-in-the-head judge who has never even seen a canal that this walkway was unsafe, and that it was intrinsicly unsafe.

 

But what would be the fall-out from this.

 

Certainly the OP might get his day in court, and he might "win", and walk off with £10k in damages, but BW woul then be faced with dealing with the consequences of the ruling. They would have to spend millions on safety improvements to these walkways. It may even be that they decide that it is not possible to actually make them safe enough, in which case hundreds of locks will have to have them removed, and tail bridges built to replace them.

 

It is vanishingly unlikely that the money fairy will visit with a show of largesse to pay for all this, so vast amounts of money that could have been spent on dredging canals, or on preventing them breaching will be diverted onto yet another H&S blind alley.

 

The GU main line would be made "safer" for those who take insufficient care, and some lesser used would be left to rot. The OP probably won't worry about that, because he doesn't actually go there.

 

I should point out that in criticising the lack of care, I criticise myself. My worst boating injury to date involved a badly sprained ankle incurred falling from a balance beam crossing on the Stratford. These crossings are considerably less safe that the gate walkways that we are discussing here. Did I attempt to sue BW for not providing a safer crossing? No, I accepted that I'm a grown-up, and capable of discerning that the walkway needed to be treated with care and respect, and that having not done so, it was my own stupid fault!

 

To the OP, you want answers to the questions that you pose, but that is not what happens in a place like this. If you want answers to questions, rather than commentary on the issues, you need to pay for advice. Throw it up for discussion here, and people may well choose to take the discussion along a different track.

[deletedaccount]

It would be interesting to hear from the OP what actually happened.

[sociable_hermit]

The biggest hazard around single locks are the new bollards you can fall over. Double locks generally have a wider hard surface walkway around the edge and the bollards can be clearly seen, but in single locks they're often in the grass and mud and are easy to forget if the light is poor.

[Axe]

Hi.

 

I am the person who fell - using 'Axe's' account to write this.

 

Yes, there was a fault on the walkway - hence asking if anyone else has fallen.

As to the accident....if you really want to know I ended up in the water above the top gates after raising both ground paddles, got sucked down into the culvert where I was stuck for what seemed like hours. I assumed I was dead. All the pre-death things you hear about went through my mind.

But the water pressure eventually pushed me through. Then I had to contend with a filling lock and the turbulence. I cheated death twice that day.

I had multiple injuries and had an op this August (a year after the accident) to put me back together - I will be able to walk sometime - maybe this year.

 

I still use the waterways, but yes, I still have flashbacks, I still cry but I am still determined that no-one else should suffer and the defect be attended to.

 

So, please be a bit more sensitive, as Sue above said.

 

Thanks

 

Di

[mayalld]

Hi.

 

I am the person who fell - using 'Axe's' account to write this.

 

Yes, there was a fault on the walkway - hence asking if anyone else has fallen.

As to the accident....if you really want to know I ended up in the water above the top gates after raising both ground paddles, got sucked down into the culvert where I was stuck for what seemed like hours. I assumed I was dead. All the pre-death things you hear about went through my mind.

But the water pressure eventually pushed me through. Then I had to contend with a filling lock and the turbulence. I cheated death twice that day.

I had multiple injuries and had an op this August (a year after the accident) to put me back together - I will be able to walk sometime - maybe this year.

 

I still use the waterways, but yes, I still have flashbacks, I still cry but I am still determined that no-one else should suffer and the defect be attended to.

 

So, please be a bit more sensitive, as Sue above said.

 

Thanks

 

Di

 

In what way was the walkway defective?

[Speedwheel]

Yes, there was a fault on the walkway

 

Were you not paying enough attention to notice any 'fault' and avoid it?

Edited September 4, 2009 by Satellite