Ladder accident, please don't laugh, you'll only encourage them

Today I typed "ladder accident" into Google as part of my daily personal injury research and on the first page there was a "funny video" of a man jumping off a precariously placed tall ladder into a backyard swimming pool. Of-course, the ladder slipped, the jumper's feet got caught in the rungs and he tipped unceremoniously down, crashing on the concrete ledge beside the pool and then bouncing into the water. It was horrific.

Whoever edited the video, swiftly replayed the footage of the fall from height, before letting the film run on to show a gesticulating female come running to drag the man out of the water. I was appalled.

I suppose, as I think about it, the man had set his video camera to record the footage and has therefore, probably willingly, released this film for public consumption. I have to wonder why. He did land on his head, of course.

Ladders are tricky things. I have a large, bright red metal, folding specimen that resides in a cupboard on my landing and is brought out to enable us to get into the loft. I am a 5' 2" female and it is as much as I can do to manoeuvre this object into place in the tiny area that answers to the name of "upstairs landing" in my house.

Over the years, during the manipulation of the ladder from the cupboard to the loft hatch, I have taken various chunks out of the paintwork and caused some heinous gashes in the anaglypta. I have also given myself some fantastic bruises on my feet and shins, not to mention the time I wholly dropped the ladder and it landed with such a violent clang that I was deaf for three days and suffered tinnitus for a good couple of months.

I had no-one else to blame, I could make no personal injury compensation claim, but I certainly had an insight into how these accident claims come about.

Even small step ladders can be risky. I have to say, I pride myself on being on the brink of completely paranoid about safety once on a ladder. However, our little step ladder has claimed numerous fingers in its metal hinge grips and even now, my partner, who uses it as a kitchen stool, approaches it with an air of trepidation. On thinking about it, he tends to leave it up now, and I have to risk my dainty digits in the morning when the family comes to the kitchen for breakfast.

So, why is it that we treat ladders with so little care and attention? According to the Health and Safety Executive, each year an average of 13 people die at work after falling from ladders and nearly 1,200 suffer major injuries. More than a quarter of all falls happen from a ladder.

In domestic situations the figures rise to 50 deaths a year caused by ladder accidents; 1,000 serious injuries occur and 40,000 hospital visits.

Interestingly, many people who have accidents from step ladders suggest that the ladder was at fault; citing ladder collapse in their product liability claim. However, according to an Engineering Failure Analysis paper published by the Open University Materials Engineering Department in Milton Keynes, the step ladder is not designed for any degree of side-loading and is relatively easily overturned. The report states that in almost every case falls are caused by human error and not by a faulty product.

So, it is with a safety conscious mind that I go back to the Google search and "fun with ladders" brings up a stills picture montage of the most ludicrous ladder accidents waiting to happen. Stupidity is obviously not dead when it comes to risking your life.

Can I claim?