Risky Behavior Or Unsafe Premises?
Personal injury cases can arise from injuries that happened in almost any situation, but the outcome always depends on questions of negligence. Whose duty was it to prevent the accident, and could this party have reasonably prevented it? When people engage in recreational activities without paying admission to the recreational area, then Recreational Land Use Statutes apply; in other words, if you swim in a lake in South Carolina, an alligator might bite you, and if you climb a tree in a park, you might fall and get hurt. Meanwhile, at recreational facilities where guests pay admission, such as trampoline parks, employees are always on the lookout for risky behavior, and management has a duty of care to make it difficult for guests to attempt dangerous stunts; for example, the trampolines should be built in a way that guests cannot climb to the top and jump down. Hotel rooms offer privacy, so hotel employees cannot micromanage the risk level of what guests are doing in their hotel rooms. If you got injured at a hotel while vacationing in South Carolina, contact a Columbia premises liability lawyer.
Guest Suffers Fatal Fall After Doing Handstand on Hotel Balcony
In September 2022, a group of tourists from Akron, Ohio did not let the forecasts about Hurricane Ian change their plans about the vacation they have planned months in advance. South Carolina did not get the worst of the storm; by the time it made landfall in South Carolina, it was a Category 1 hurricane, making it only slightly stronger than a tropical storm, but even a tropical storm has such high winds that it warrants staying indoors.
During the storm, Markell Hope went out to the balcony of his room on the 15th floor of the Patricia Grand Hotel. According to witnesses, he was doing a handstand on the balcony when he fell to his death. He was 34 years old.
Will Hope’s surviving relatives have a strong case if they file a premises liability lawsuit against the hotel? Going out on a balcony during a hurricane is dangerous; hurricane force winds are enough to pick up an adult and send him airborne. Should the hotel have installed hurricane shutters on all the rooms with balconies and sent employees to close them when the National Weather Service issued a hurricane warning for Myrtle Beach? Should the hotel have built the railings of its balconies so that a person could not accidentally fall over them or through them?
Hope was one of more than 100 people who died in accidents arising from Hurricane Ian. Most of the victims were in Florida, but there were also fatalities in North Carolina and Cuba.
Let Us Help You Today
The personal injury lawyers at the Stanley Law Group can help you pursue a complaint related to a preventable accident at a hotel during adverse weather. Contact The Stanley Law Group in Columbia, South Carolina or call (803)799-4700 for a free initial consultation.
Source:
newsweek.com/man-falls-death-after-trying-handstand-hotel-balcony-1749429
