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Personal injury, youclaim.co.uk

A personal injury claim may result from a poorly-designed access ramp

If you have suffered an injury which was not your fault, then you may be able to make a personal injury claim to compensate for your pain, suffering and resulting loss of earnings.

Thanks to government regulations, since 1991 public buildings have been required to provide disabled access for wheelchair users.

Although the ramps provided are meant for those individuals who are wheelchair-bound, other people who may find it difficult to climb steps, such as elderly or blind people and parents with pushchairs, might also use the disabled access ramps to reach the entrance to a building.

With both disabled and more able-bodied people using ramps to facilitate a journey, it is important that the access routes are built in accordance with the regulations to reduce the possibility of someone having an accident while ascending or descending them.

Regulations
To make using the ramp as easy and as safe as possible for wheelchair users and other individuals, a disabled access ramp should:

  • Have a non-slip surface;

  • Be at least 1.5 metres in width, unobstructed;

  • Should have flat 1.2 metre surfaces at top and bottom and landings of 1.5 metres every 10 metres along a lengthy ramp;

  • Have a raised kerb of 100mm to protect users from open ramp sides;

  • Provide a suitable and continuous handrail along its full length.

There are also rules to be followed when it comes to the ramp's gradient. Too steep and a wheelchair user may find the ramp difficult to climb, too flat and the ramp may be an overly long path to use in order to reach the height inaccessible to the wheelchair user by any other route.

The gradient of a disabled access ramp should be as follows:

  • With ramps of 10 meters in length the gradient must be no more than 1:20;

  • Ramps of around five metres in length should be a maximum gradient of 1:15;

  • Two meter long ramps should be no steeper than 1:12.

For ramps in between these noted lengths, it is acceptable to choose an appropriate gradient by using the figures approved for lengths of two, five or ten metres. For example, if a ramp is seven metres in length, the building contractor may choose to make the incline at any gradient in between 1:15 and 1:20.

If one of these regulations is not followed, then it could result in injury of whoever might use the ramp. A wheelchair user may roll down the ramp too quickly due to too steep a slope, or an elderly person may fall over due to the ramp not being covered in a non-slip surface.

Making a personal injury claim
If you would like to make a disabled access-related personal injury claim, then with help from YouClaim's solicitors you could receive 100% compensation. We don't take a cut of your award and our services won't cost you a penny.

Just fill in our short online claim form or talk to a member of our team on live help to find out if you are eligible to make a personal injury claim. Alternatively you can also contact us by phone on 0800 10 757 95.