Top 3 Sprinkler Components Causing Trip and Fall Injuries

SAN DIEGO - April 7, 2014 - PRLog -- So, your walking through a thick, green lawn at the park.  While enjoying the sunshine, looking at the blue sky or perhaps some distant object, all of the sudden, your foot catches on something causing you to stagger forward, fortunately catching your balance without falling or injury.  Looking behind you to see what caused you to trip, you notice a green lidded plastic box sticking up out of the ground.  You just tripped over a valve box, inside of the box is a valve that controls the sprinkler system for the lawn area you are walking through.

Perhaps you want to take a shortcut, so you cut across a planter area instead of staying on the sidewalk.  Lots of shrubs and ground cover in the planter, as you weave your way through the plants, you trip over an object, falling to on the ground.  Hopefully, no injury, when you look back you see a sprinkler head on a piece of plastic pipe sticking a foot out of the ground.

Who would ever consider inherent dangers posed by sprinkler parts sticking out of the ground?  A high incidence of landscape trip and fall accidents can be attributed to improperly specified, incorrectly installed or poorly maintained irrigation components protruding above grade.

In a recent article entitled Irrigation Components, A Cause of Trip and Fall Accidents and Litigation, Mr. Rappoport states "Three problematic irrigation components are valve boxes, popup sprinklers and spray heads on risers.  The correct installation of these items is dependent upon orientation to  the surrounding finish grade. From a trip and fall hazard perspective, they are frequently the cause of landscape related accidents and resultant litigation."

A must read for attorneys and landscape contractors, click here to read the full article http://landscapeexpertwitness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013...