Grocery stores are responsible for thousands of grocery store accidents each year, and it’s no wonder why. After all, the average American goes to a grocery store 1.6 times per week and spends there at least 40 minutes per trip. On average, Americans spend about 60 hours of grocery shopping per year. That’s quite a lot.
As you can imagine, with shopping in a grocery store being such an integral part of our lives, getting injured in grocery store is not something out of extraordinary. And in some cases, grocery stores can be held responsible for injuries caused to their customers both in the store or outside in the parking lot.
“However, you cannot blame the grocery store for all kinds of injuries,” warns our Pittsburgh grocery store accident attorney at SMT Legal.
Under Pennsylvania’s premises liability law, the owner of a grocery store or any other property cannot be held responsible for injuries unless he or she failed to take reasonable measures to protect his/her visitors and customers from reasonably foreseeable harm or the owner failed to remedy a dangerous condition on the property in a timely manner (or the owner or his/her workers created the dangerous condition through negligence or carelessness, and then failed to fix it).
Like in many other states, owners of grocery stores in Pittsburgh owe their customers and visitors a duty of care. Grocery stores have a legal duty to ensure that their premises are safe for their visitors and customers and must take all reasonable steps to prevent harm to visitors and customers.
Common Causes of Grocery Store Accidents
Obviously, slippery floors from spilled milk are not the only hazardous condition that exists in grocery stores. Other causes of grocery store accidents include but are not limited to:
- Falling merchandise from shelves or inadequately secured objects from the ceiling;
- Obstacles on the floor (boxes, pallets, etc.);
- Slippery floors from spills and leaks;
- Defective entrance and exit doors;
- Faulty grocery carts;
- Inadequate security;
- Uneven, loose, or missing flooring in the grocery store;
- The cracked or uneven pavement outside or in the parking lot;
- Selling spoiled or otherwise dangerous food;
- Selling defective or recalled products;
- Inadequate lighting (especially in the parking lot or stairway); and
- Improperly inspected or maintained elevators and escalators.
Grocery Store’s Liability for Accidents and Injuries
For example, let’s imagine that one of the customers accidentally spilled milk on the floor and told the store’s janitor about the spill. However, as the janitor was busy mopping the floor in another aisle, he forgot about the spilled milk and did not clean it up for the next two hours. Because the floor was not cleaned immediately or within a reasonable amount of time, another customer got injured in a slip and fall accident.
“Since the store’s worker knew about the dangerous condition but failed to remedy it within a reasonable amount of time, the injured customer will have a legitimate premises liability claim against the store,” explains our experienced grocery store accident attorney Pittsburgh.
In other words, all you need to sue a grocery store for its failure to maintain a safe premises is to demonstrate evidence that a hazardous condition existed in the grocery store, its workers were aware or should have been aware of it, and you were harmed as a result of this dangerous condition on the property.
Pittsburgh Grocery Store Accident Attorneys
As you can see, you can sue a grocery store for a variety of reasons. However, in many situations, injured customers need a Pittsburgh grocery store accident lawyer by their side to prove that the store created the hazardous condition that caused your injury, or knew or should have known about the condition but failed to take reasonable measures to correct the hazard or warn you about it. If you were injured in a grocery store, contact us the Premises Liability Attorneys at SMT today.