Police Thyself, City & County of Honolulu!

Police Thyself, City & County of Honolulu!

In 2009, the City & County of Honolulu established the "The Concrete Sidewalk

Maintenance Program for City & County of Honolulu" The City stated that the purpose of the program was as follows:

Over time sidewalks are damaged from weathering, tree roots and regular use. A

sidewalk maintenance program to regularly repair or reconstruct damaged sidewalk is

important for ensuring pedestrian safety on city sidewalks. The goal of the Concrete Sidewalk Maintenance Program is to prevent and repair sidewalk trip hazards in a timely manner in the interest of public safety and welfare.

The Program and its supporting ordinances make the abutting property owner responsible for the sidewalk maintenance. Pursuant to the program, the City’s Department of Planning & Permitting (the "DPP") is charged with enforcing the program, and thus, ensuring that these property owners maintain their sidewalks. The DPP is supposed to be both proactive and reactive.

So, if a sidewalk is found to have a tripping hazard, the City (pursuant to its ordinances, and, the Program) notifies the property owner and orders it to fix the hazard. "Tripping hazards" are defined, by the Program, as a "vertical separation greater than ½ inch."

IF, for some reason, the property owner does not fix the hazard within 60 days, then, the City is to fix the sidewalk. After all, we can’t just leave trip hazardous on our sidewalks.... Its dangerous. The City can charge the abutting landowner for the cost of repair.

But, what if the abutting landowner is the City itself? According to the law, their supposed police themselves and fix any trip hazards (vertical separations of ½ inch of more, etc.). Apparently, that’s not how it works.

I recently met a woman who tripped on a "vertical separation" of over an inch, twice the height which the City considers dangerous. What made this "vertical separation" even more dangerous is that it was covered with dirt, leaves and other debris. This made it almost impossible to see, especially when dark.

Sidewalk across the street from where the accident happened. 
Note, it has been recently patched.

I’m generally not a huge trip and fall claim advocate, but, I thought I’d better go check it out. When I got there, I had to park across the street. As I walked to the nearby crosswalk, I was saw that the sidewalk had been recently fixed. Bear in mind this is just across the street from where this poor lady tripped. On this side of the street (which abutted a private landowner), the sidewalk showed new concrete patches, obviously fixing the same trip hazards which existed on the opposite side of the street.

I crossed the street and saw that, in fact, the sidewalk had numerous vertical separations of more than an inch, up to two inches in some places. There was no evidence of repair or patches. Ironically, this sidewalk abutted property owned by the City.

Sidewalk abutting City's property, just
across the street from a private landowner
who was recently made to fix the vertical
separation hazards on the sidewalk abutting
its property.

Clearly, the City had ordered the private landowner across the street to fix the dangerous vertical trip hazards. But, what about the trip hazards abutting its own property? To this day, it continues to present a hazard to people walking there. The vertical separations are obscured by dirt, leaves and debris. Police Thyself, City & County of Honolulu!

A more than one ince separation is very
hazardous, especially if it obscured by
dirt, leaves and debris.

Recovery Law Center

Glenn T. Honda

Honolulu Personal Injury Attorney

1260 Young Street, #228

Honolulu, Hawaii 96814

808 597-88868

http://recoveryourloss.com/

Avoid the "Paperwork Jungle"

Avoid the "Paperwork Jungle"
 

At the Recovery Law Center, our personal injury attorney and his staff will help you to work through the "Paperwork Jungle." Keeping all of the paperwork straight can be difficult. If the victim misses a deadline or fails to file the correct forms, a claim can be denied. Also, victims need to avoid signing any releases or waiver such as medical release forms. These can be buried in the mass of paperwork and are easy to overlook. Signing such a waiver can give the insurance company access to confidential medical information that can be used against the victim. What is more, sometimes an insurance company can use "paperwork" to delay, harass and/or burden an accident victim.

In Hawaii, it is considered an unfair claim practice to Delay the investigation or payment of claims by requiring an insured, claimant, or the physician of either to submit a preliminary claim report and then requiring the subsequent submission of formal proof of loss forms, both of which submissions contain substantially the same information.

Essentially what this means is that insurance companies are not allowed to make multiple duplicative requests for information. They can not force claimants to file multiple documents, provide recorded statements, etc., which only provide the same information which they already obtained from that claimant.

http://www.recoveryourloss.com/

Slip and Fall Injury–It was raining....whose fault?

Slip and Fall Injury–It was raining....whose fault?

Although I am a personal injury attorney, I say this a lot to people: sometimes things just happen, and even if people are injured, its just bad luck.   Is there always fault for every accident and every injury? NO.

However, in a recent case, a client was walking in the parking lot for our City Building. Yes, he knew it was raining. Yes, he knew that wet surfaces can be slippery.  So, he was trying to be careful. As he took only a few steps out from the covered area, his foot slipped out from under him, in a terrible fall. His body literally flew up. He describes it like an "old cartoon character slipping and catching air before falling."

He sat there stunned for a few minutes. He looked around and all of the ground surface looked the same. What had he slipped on? He had tried to be so careful.

He rested several days, hoping he’d feel better, but, only got worse. When he called me to meet him at the accident scene, he could barely walk and needed the assistance of a cane. That day, it was dry and sunny.

What had looked evenly covered because of the rain, looked much different when it was dry. (I post some pictures of the surface here--as it appears when dry). There are numerous large areas of patches where the non-skid surfacing had been worn off. Of course, when it was wet you couldn't really tell where the worn-out patches were. That’s when it all looks the same color and you can’t tell some of it has worn off.  This is how it looks when dry, (you can actually see the unsafe areas):

This is a very dangerous situation. The City obviously knew it was dangerously slippery there, and so it applied some non-slip coating. But, the City let it get very badly, and quite dangerously, worn out.  The worn-out patches are hard to see when its wet, making it even more dangerous. As a result, this unlucky gentlemen was severely injured. But was this particular case just bad luck?  NO.  It could have been avoided.  Thus, in this case it WAS someone's fault:  the City.

http://www.recoveryourloss.com/