A widow has been left battered and bruised after she fell over a broken paving stone outside her home and had to crawl, bleeding, across the road to get help from a neighbour.
Lily Shermer, aged 81, was walking from her home in West Bromwich to her daughter Gillian’s house nearby when she tripped over the stone, which she says was sticking up. Her family fear other elderly people could suffer the same fate.
They said today that she looked “like she’d been in a boxing ring” because of her bruises and called on Sand-well Council to take better care of its pavements.
Mrs Shermer said: “I didn’t know what had happened; I just slammed face-first into the pavement.
“It was extremely painful, and there was so much blood I couldn’t believe it. I had hurt my leg and had to crawl across the street to my neighbour’s house who called an ambulance.
“I went to Sandwell Hospital where they examined me and have had to be put in the care of my family as they fear I could suffer delayed shock.”
Mrs Shermer was walking from her sheltered housing bungalow to her daughter’s home at 5.30pm on Sunday when she fell. She said: “The pavements are always in a state but whatever you say, nothing gets done.”
Mrs Shermer’s daughter Christine Hocknull, 58, hit out at the state of the pavement. She said: “Mum looks like she’s been in a boxing ring.
“It has really shaken her, yet we know it could have all been avoided if the paths were properly monitored and maintained.”
Cabinet member Councillor Mahboob Hussain said: “I am sorry to hear about this lady’s accident and hope she recovers quickly.
“As soon as we received the inquiry we sent a highways engineer to investigate. We are satisfied all highways-adopted footpaths meet health safety standards.
“However, we believe the area in question may be the responsibility of a housing association, so we are contacting them to investigate further.”
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7 Comments
its terrible, i too have a raised broken slab outside my council house, but having reported this 3 times to darlaston whg,nothing has been done, my young daughter, visitors and others have tripped up more than once
the councils are a joke, they are happy to hit us with increases in council tax and in return we have to suffer a service that gets worse every year. heres an idea, more council tax in return for a better standard of council services.
contract the work out. no money for slabs not surprised after paying the binmens bonus.(vote wisely)
take them to court for the pain that they have caused you
OMG.That poor woman.
I hope that her plight being in your paper shame that council into offering her compensation and teh immediate repair of the area where this happened.
They charge council tax are disgusting levels and cant grab a slab hurl sand under it and tamper it down.APPALLING!!!!
Hope you feel better soon darling..x
tarmac the lot ?
Labour run Sandwell council prefers to waste its money on white elephants like ThePublic, rather than anything that will benefit residents.