What If?

Jeremy Vıne: whose fault is it anyway? Never mind the Olympics, the Brits' national sport should be 'avoiding blame’ - A man nearly died in my garden last week. I wasn’t there at the time, but when I heard what happened it wasn’t just images of ambulances that came to mind; I imagined what the police would have said to me if things had turned out differently…  “So this gentleman – the deceased – did you know him?”  “No. Well, yes. Sort of.” “Were you aware he was planning to erect a ladder on your kitchen roof and climb up to the third floor? Your daughter’s bedroom?”  “No.” “And yet you had paid him to clean that window. So how on earth, may I ask, did you think he was doing it?” And at that point I would have raised my hands in surrender and said: “Fair cop. My window cleaner has died and it’s all my fault.” Thank heavens, he did not die.

But the story was frightening enough. The man’s ladder had been resting on the bitumen surface of the kitchen roof. Heat had loosened the tar and the foot of the ladder suddenly slid from under him. A camera on the back of our house shows the ladder fall first, rapidly followed by the man, who travels at speed through the air, upside-down. Luckily his left leg gets caught around a rung of the ladder, which stops his head striking the concrete. He dangles like a broken puppet. After a while he gets to his feet. So there were no police, no ambulances. But I turned it over in my head. If the poor man had died, I just know I would have been responsible. I would have been responsible because it was my window, my house and my melting roof.

The list of reasons goes on. I once asked a lawyer friend what would happen if, theoretically, I blew up a paper bag and popped it behind the head of a young lady who, unbeknownst to me, had a heart condition and dropped dead. (Naturally, I would never do such a thing.) Unforeseen tragedy? “No, manslaughter,” he told me. The fact that she had a heart condition could not be used in mitigation. “You’re just as much to blame for killing a frail person as a healthy one,” he said. Clearly I would have had no chance with the window cleaner.

But where do you draw the line? A report earlier this year revealed that a nurse who slipped on a piece of potato had claimed nearly £4,000 in compensation from her hospital trust for failing to provide a safe working environment. Another worker had claimed nearly £3,000 for injuring their shoulder while throwing litter into a bin. And what about the extraordinary chain of events that took place in Augusta, Maine, a few years ago?

A woman drove her husband to the office. In addition to a goodbye kiss, she thought she’d brighten his day by flashing her breasts. Unfortunately, a passing taxi driver, Jim Vegas, glanced over. He saw the breasts and lost control at the wheel. The cab hit the Johnson Medical Building. On the first floor a dental technician was cleaning a patient’s teeth. The impact jolted her hand, she cut the patient’s gum and, in shock, he clamped his jaw shut and severed two of her fingers. Now who was responsible for that? The woman who flashed? The taxi driver?

After the 2010 election people congratulated me for “bringing down Gordon Brown” after I interviewed him about the “bigoted” pensioner Gillian Duffy on my radio show. But I don’t take any responsibility for his downfall because it was just chance that the former PM happened to insult Ms Duffy on the same day he was due to see me. The interview was simply the culmination of a series of events. The trouble is, no one likes to use the word “accident” now. As a result the avoidance of blame is a national sport. When I caught my five year-old eating chocolate from a cake I was baking after I had told her to stop, she came out with the classic line: “I’m sorry, dad, but it fell on me.”

Which is why I’m certain that, if my window cleaner had died, the police would have called, and even though I’d never met him or told him where to put his ladder, it would have been all my fault.

Guide to Home Insurance (UK) Public liability cover. Remember that you are liable for accidents to individuals working at your property and damage caused to other people’s property. For instance, if your window cleaner falls off his ladder and dies, you will need ‘public liability’ cover to cover you if you are sued. Most buildings insurance policies automatically incorporate public liability cover, but always check.

Contractor Liability (US): Are You Covered for Mishaps on Your Property? What happens if, despite all precautions, there’s an accident involving your contractor that leads to a liability issue? Who’s responsible—and who pays? Step 1: Check the personal liability section of your home owners policy. What’s typically covered: Negligence—a contractor slips on an ice walkway. Check your policy and state rules for specifics, notes Chicago-based attorney Steven J. Thayer. What’s not: Major injuries—limits are usually fairly low. Don’t trust your home owners or umbrella policies to protect you if a builder’s employee sustains major injuries. 
Also, accidents due to your gross negligence. For example, if you knew your roof was damaged and unlikely to handle the weight of a ladder and didn’t tell the contractor, a lawyer could argue that was gross negligence. Policies vary widely. Look in the personal liability section of your home owners policy for details, says Jack Smith, a spokesperson for the trade group Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of New York. The bottom line? Instead of worrying over your insurance, make sure your contractor has his own.

Not all states require this for small contractors, so ask your contractor to provide you with a policy certificate. Accidents involving the contractor’s own equipment, such as falling off a ladder. (Contractors using your ladder could claim it was your faulty equipment, not their clumsiness, leading to an insurance battle and a lawsuit. Don’t provide your contractor with anything more dangerous than a pencil.)

Tragedy Of Wakefield Window Cleaner Who Plunged Off Faulty Ladder

Tragedy of Wakefield window cleaner who plunged off faulty ladder: A safety conscious window cleaner suffered fatal head injuries after falling from his ladder, an inquest heard. Roland Jungbauer, 43, was a former scaffolder turned self-employed window cleaner with a conscientious attitude to safety at work, Wakefield Coroner's Court was told.

There were no witnesses to the fall, which happened as Mr Jungbauer, of Ossett, was working at a house in Grey Court at Outwood, Wakefield, last March 9. Householder Katie Mellor was out when Mr Jungbauer was cleaning her first floor windows. Coroner's officer Colin Mantell said when she returned home, just before 3pm, Mr Jungbauer told her: "Let me in I'm freezing." Mr Mantell added: "She opened the door and he collapsed in the doorway."

Mr Jungbauer was taken to Pinderfields Hospital at Wakefield and later transferred to the intensive care unit at Leeds General Infirmary. He did not regain consciousness and died from a severe, traumatic brain injury at LGI seven days later. In a statement read to the court, Mr Jungbauer's sister Sally said her brother was a "conscientious worker - always aware of his own safety." She added: "He used to be a scaffolder and was used to working at heights. He did not take risks and to the best of my knowledge he had never fallen from his ladder before."

Miss Jungbauer's life-long friend and fellow window cleaner Paul Wilkes said in a statement how he noticed after the accident that Mr  Jungbauer's ladders were broken on the third rung up, adding: "I know he only bought the ladders last year. He always kept his equipment in good working order." Recording a verdict of accidental death, deputy coroner Melanie Wiliamson, said: "Tragically, for some reason Mr Jungbauer did fall from his ladders. We do know the third rung up was broken, how that happened we do not know."

Original blog here.

Man falls through window at Regina's Central Library: A man fell through a full length glass window inside the Central Library in Regina on Wednesday. It's unclear exactly how it happened, but people around the library were shocked. Darryl Lachance walked into the library just as the man fell through the window. He said it was worrisome. "That's scary when you come downtown and see something like that especially at the public library," he said.

The fire department said the man was distraught and had to be restrained. He also had multiple cuts on his body. Julie McKenna, the deputy library director at the Regina Public Library noted staff worked fast to help the man. "The staff reacted quickly. They called 911," said McKenna. "We are in the process of boarding it up right now cleaning up the area. Of course there is some blood in the area, so that has been safely cleaned up." She said the Central Library is still open and they will have permanent glass put back in as soon as possible.