Statistically, elevators are among the safest means of transportation available. Accidents do happen, however, and when they do someone is usually at fault. If you have been injured in an elevator accident, you are going to need to know who to claim against and how much money to demand. The answers to both of these questions can be far from obvious in many cases..

Causes of Elevator Accidents

Elevator injuries and deaths can be traced to a wide variety of different causes. Some of the most common are listed below:

• The elevator door closes too quickly on a passenger;
• The elevator drops suddenly;
• A passenger falls into the elevator shaft when the doors fail to close properly;
• The doors fail to line up with the floor, causing a slip and fall injury; and
• Faulty electrical wiring electrocutes a passenger or causes a fire.

Elevator Safety Regulations and Negligence Per Se

In Kentucky, the violation of a safety regulation is considered automatic negligence (the formal legal term is negligence per se) as long as the injured victim is a member of the class of people that the safety regulation was enacted to protect — an elevator passenger, for example. The consequence of this rule is that once you prove the defendant violated a Kentucky elevator safety regulation, all you have left to prove is that the violation actually caused your injury.

Premises Liability

If you can trace the accident to fault on the part of the building owner, you won’t necessarily even have to prove that the owner violated a specific safety regulation to win your claim. The owner of a building, including a commercial establishment, is charged with a duty of care with respect to the safety of visitors to his establishment. If he violates this duty of care in a manner that results in an injury, he can be held liable in a personal injury lawsuit.

Product Liability Claims

If you can prove that the elevator itself, or one of its components, was defective and unreasonably dangerous due to a design defect, a manufacturing defect or a failure to provide adequate product warnings, you can win a claim against the manufacturer without even having to prove negligence.

Wrongful Death Claims

In Kentucky, the personal representative of the probate estate of the deceased victim of an elevator accident can file a wrongful death claim. Damages go mostly to the close relatives of the victim, although the estate itself is reimbursed for funeral and burial expenses.

If We Don’t Win, You Don’t Pay

At Glenn Martin Hammond law office, we only bill you if we win your case — in other words, if you don’t win a lawsuit or a settlement, we work for free. We can afford to do this because we don’t lose very often. It is important that you get started pursuing your claim early, because in most cases Kentucky allows an injured victim only a year after an accident to file a lawsuit or finalize a settlement agreement.

Call Lexington, KY personal injury lawyer Glenn Martin Hammond today at (606) 437-7777, or complete our online contact form, to schedule an appointment to discuss your claim. We serve clients in Woodhill, Cardinal Valley, Bryan Station and elsewhere in Lexington, KY, as well as throughout the state.