Looking for other victims or witnesses to slip and fall injuries at BART

I blame BART because it does nothing to police it's own No Food or Liquids policy. And yes, I do have medical coverage with a wonderful $1700 deductible. My eye is still bulging out slightly from this injury. Not exactly fun. I have 4 witnesses, including a woman who was coming down the escalator, so she had an aerial view. She doesn't seem to think it's my fault. One of the other witnesses was also exiting the train and he said he didn't see the spill either. And I had flat, rubber, waffle soled boots on.

Your little nickname pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Maybe someday something similar will happen to you and you'll learn to be a little bit more compassionate.

Elaine

Dear Evil Pete,

I guess it would have been better if there had been someone near enough to break my fall. I certainly wish there had been. And, in breaking my fall, maybe they would have fallen off the platform onto the tracks in front of an oncoming train. Would you have liked that better???

Let me guess. You're probably one of the riders who drinks liquids on BART, right? And, I'm guessing you're also the type who, if you spilled something, probably wouldn't bother trying to find some paper to put over it or reporting it to the BART agent. Am I right again? Since my injury, I've seen at least 7 or 8 spills on the platforms. And I have covered them with newspaper and reported them to the agent because, unlike you, I'd hate to have someone else get injured like I did. I guess you feel that if some blind or elderly person, or some pregnant woman slips in a spill and injures themselves, it's just their tough luck, isn't it?

Elaine

One of the 4 witnesses went and got a BART agent, and the agent called the paramedics.

Elaine

You can have a herd of slip and fall victims step forward and attest to whatever they claim to be BART's fault. Are you seeking a class action suit? You've already provided enough information that your accident was unavoidable - you didn't see the spill, it was crowded and others either step on it and didn't slip.

Having a sealed cup of coffee on BART doesn't make BART negligent. If the coffee spilled while off-boarding, it was the passenger's fault. Would it have been reasonable for a BART custodian to be standing on the platform ready to sweep/mob up after each off-load? No. It isn't a crime for people to bring their lunch, drinks or other consumables onto BART, nor would it be reasonable to "police" each station, train or platform for eating, drinking and smoking 100% of the time.

Consider yourself lucky that you have medical insurance. The $1700 deductible was a decision you made for the cost of having medical coverage. Based on your version here, you have a lousy case. You didn't help yourself with some critical admissions, which I'm sure, someone on this blog has forwarded to BART's insurance and legal counsel.

If you are claiming that your brow and eyes might be bulging after 9 months, you might be negligent yourself for allowing this condition to linger for so long. Your case is against gravity and the coefficient of friction of vertical and lateral forces.

BTW - the only one who may have remembered the events of that day at about 9:25AM is someone named Scatdog or was it Scatwolf.

Sad.. Accident (see definition) happend, someone has a high deductable.. Looking for someone to blame.. I'm sorry for your continued pain, but BART is not the evil that put it there.. Also, do you believe someone will remember a cup of coffee on the ground back in March? I actuall saw coffee being dropped today, on a train, on the carpet.

I hope there is much more to the story than what she said. I really dont see where BART was negligent from the little that was said so far.. It does seem more like she has a bill to pay and wants to extort BART for something that another person did. And the fact there is lasting pain does not make BART more liable.

I hope not though... But it is all to common..

Now, if you can prove, that someone notified a BART person of the spill, and they ignored the report, therefor creating a hazardous condition. Then you may have a case..

i was going to say that same thing about falling backwards. the only time i have ever fallen forward or seen anyone else fall forward was because they tripped, not slipped. when you slip, your feet go forward and out from under the rest of your body, so you should land on your butt or back.

plus, it is a natural reaction to put your hands out when you fall. in fact, it is so natural of a reaction that people who fall a lot for a living (like mountain bikers) must learn to fall without using their hands and arms so they don't break an arm/hand/wrist/collarbone during a crash. they let their torsos take the beating and their helmet protect their heads. where were your hands during this fall?

lastly, and not to give you any ideas, but i dont think you have a case against bart unless you can prove that a bart employee was the one that spilled the coffee.

It's probably stupid of me to bother responding because it'll probably make you go off the deep end again. Your response is a good indication of not only what type of person you are, but also your complete lack of humanity. I'm amazed at how vicious you are, and actually feel sorry for you.

If I slipped on a sidewalk because someone had spilled something, I wouldn't sue SF. When you're walking on sidewalks, you know to look for things like that. You don't expect spills on BART platforms because BART supposedly has a policy that doesn't allow eating and drinking. And, because I am the type of person who would wipe up anything I spilled (because I do think of how my actions affect others), I naively assumed anyone would, so it never occurred to me that I should be looking for spills when I was exiting a BART train.

I'm guessing you can't fathom me being the type of person who would wipe up my own spill because you're not the type who would. It's probably not within your realm of thinking or being. I'm the type of person who always asks anyone looking at a map if they need help. I carry the BART Transit Connections brochure in my purse, so I can give it to visitors who don't have a decent map. I've even walked out of my way to show visitors where something is. If someone's car is stalled, I always offer to help push the car. I clean up and sometimes fix clothing and things that people leave on the street, and then either give the clothing to homeless people or list things on Freecycle.org so they don't end up in some landfill. Do you do things like that?

I guess if I'd been looking at the ground to make sure I didn't slip in any spill, and, if someone took their bike up the escalator and accidentally dropped it and it came down and hit me, you'd be berating me for not looking up, right?

Elaine

I kinda doubt that. If one of our regulars, say Rafa, TreoBART, or boopiejones, posted a similar account, I'd grill them and question their motive as well.

You see, this person has stated that she wants money. She is looking for others to come forward and help her extort even more money from BART. Whatever her motives, wheather or not it took place or not, the fact still remains that people need to accept some personal responsibility for their own actions.

No report was taken by a BART Police Officer, and I'm not sure if the Station Agent filled out an UIR report. In any event, it's still wrong to come on here blabbing about ongoing or future litigation. You've gotta realize, Elaine, that we at BARTRage (for the most part...) are sensible, reasonable, and can see the whole picture. We are not a bunch of slip and fall artists.

Time to move elsewhere.

As was stated previously... an UIR might have been filed, but no BART Police report was filed.

Call 510-464-7032

Hey, Spice.

Not really related to your post, but just wondering... did my co-worker tell you about this site? I was on the phone with him a while ago and he said he was talking to someone about BART Rage... a passenger, perhaps. Just wondering if he referred you here, and if not, has that individual who he referred to this site registered? If so, who are you (username)?

Dear Spice,

First of all, thank you so much for coming to my defense. I was really blown away at how vicious the responses to my posting were. I realize trying to find a witness is a long shot after all this time, but I decided to try, just in case. There's always that small possibility that someone who takes the same train and rides in the same car everyday, might have witnessed the coffee being spilled or might remember seeing the spill. I also met a woman on BART who slipped and fell (again, on a BART platform) and broke her tailbone. She told me she continues to have medical problems because of it. BART also rejected her claim. I didn't think to get her phone number at the time, so I was sort of hoping she might see and respond to my posting. (If I were litigious, I obviously would have made sure I got her contact info at the time.)

It's kind of hard to keep track of who made what comments, but I wanted to try to address some of them. I was not running. And, as I said, I had flat, rubber, waffle-soled boots on. I suspect I may have stepped on the plastic coffee lid in the puddle, which may have acted like a mini-skateboard and caused me to sort of fly through the air and land on my face. (Even though I honestly could not focus my vision for almost an hour after the injury, I was able to look back and see the plastic lid in the puddle.) I wish I had fallen on my ass, in which case, I probably wouldn't be writing this now. It truly happened so quickly that I didn't have time to brace myself. I did have also a large bruise on my right knee, however. And, there was a BART police report taken by Officer Jeffrey Zwetsloot. I think someone said there wasn't a report taken, and I don't understand why they would lie about that. Anyway, I hoped the swelling would go down and it would just heal, so I didn't do anything at the time because I am not a litigious person. (I slipped and fell on a wet spill at Safeway one time, but I wasn't injured and so didn't try to pursue any type of claim.) If I was a litigious person, I definitely would have had the paramedics take me to the emergency room.

I never expected anything like this would happen to me, but it's made me acutely aware of how dangerous a spill can be. Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. So, as I said, I've been covering up every spill I see on BART platforms and immediately reporting them to the agent. I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I've been going through. I really think someday someone else is going to be injured even more seriously. I wish some of the other people who responded so viciously would try to imagine how they would feel if it happened to them.

In the probably 25 years I've been riding BART, I personally have never seen a citation being issued (as one of the other replies claimed). Maybe I've just been on the wrong trains. But, I am sick of seeing orange peels and sunflower seed shells on the trains, not to mention coffee spills on the seats and floor. The most important thing I want to come out of this is to get BART to start enforcing their policy. I've been observing riders entering and exiting the stations with coffee and counted 43 in a 48 minute period at Downtown Berkeley the other day. They all walked within 10 feet of the agents' booth and, if fact, one of the agents was standing there talking to another BART employee. They didn't stop anyone. I also counted 28 in a 20 minute period at Embarcadero. I drink my coffee at home before I leave for work, and I take a thermos with me so I can drink it when I get to work. Is it really that important for these people to have their coffee on the train?

I think I remember seeing large signs on the trains a couple of decades ago and they said there was a $222 fine for eating and/or drinking on BART. If those signs were still up, I don't think there would be as many riders blatantly drinking coffee on the trains. Also, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but Peet's Coffee is going to open kiosks at 6 BART stations next year. I'm sure BART doesn't want to honor my claim for reimbursement of medical expenses because it certainly wouldn't look good for their partnership with Peet's.

I'm sure this reply will generate a whole new barrage of hateful comments from other readers, but I hope they'll take into consideration that they do not know what type of person I am, and that there is a possibility they could be wrong about me.

Thanks again,

Elaine

Thank you. I couldn't agree more to your agreeing more... or less.

This country is out of control with all the frivolous lawsuits. I think I recently saw a site devoted to the most amusing (worst?) CYA statements made to avoid a lawsuit (i.e. "caution: coffee may be hot" kinda stuff).

On a side note, what IS it about slapstick... someone falling, tripping, slipping, splitting their head open like a ripe melon... that causes laughter to be the gut reaction? I know there are some who immediately get all concerned and rush over "are you ok? OMG are you ok?" while the rest of us fall over laughing before getting up and seeing if they're ok.

Love your turn of phrase btw, "...that is only brought on by the fiercely armed with keyboard and mouse".

"Heard a crack."

ouch... made me shiver just thinking about it.

Nice to know not everyone's thinking "lawsuit", but I still don't blame Elaine for trying to recoup costs.