A seventy-nine year old woman, who sustained a broken shoulder after the shopping trolley she was taking down a shopping centre travelator ran away from her, has been awarded 30,000 compensation for shopping trolley injury at the Circuit Civil Court.
Rosaleen Hill from Terenure in Dublin had been returning the shopping trolley to the underground car park of the Ashleaf Shopping Centre when the accident occurred in March 2009. Having completed her shopping in Dunnes Stores, Rosaleen took the downward travelator to the car park, at which point the shopping trolley started to roll away from her. Rosaleen attempted to hold on to her shopping but in her efforts fell to the ground and was dragged along the travelator surface.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane at the Circuit Civil Court heard that Jacqueline sustained a broken right should in three places and a lacerated knee. She also heard that Rosaleen had made a claim for shopping trolley injury compensation against the owners of the shopping centre, the management company and Dunnes Stores; but Dunnes Stores had denied their liability, claiming that the trolley responsible for Rosaleen´s injury was not one of theirs.
The judge heard testimony from a forensic engineer and a representative of the company that supplied Dunnes Stores with its shopping trolleys which confirmed the store´s claims that the shopping trolley was not one of theirs. The court heard that the shopping trolley had smooth wheels rather than the corrugated rubber ones which lock into the grooves on the travelator surface and that the rogue trolley had possibly been left in the common shopping trolley area by shopfitters who had been working in the shopping centre of the day of Rosaleen´s accident.
Finding Gary Smith, trading as The Ashleaf Shopping Centre and Kessow Limited – the management company responsible for health and safety at the shopping centre – jointly liable for Rosaleen´s injuries, Judge Jacqueline Linnane ordered that Rosaleen should be awarded 30,000 Euros in compensation for the shopping trolley injury.