Cycling UK Forum

WHSmith fined after customer falls through open trapdoor


I ask you, she must have been a bit senile to fall thru a gaping hole? Being older than her I think I would have noticed the trapdoor. Maybe she needs to be put in a home for her own protection? I dont know what the penalties are but it seems WHSMith got off lightly, maybe the court agreed with me? Maybe the old lady thought it was dungeons and dragons?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-46048864

Maybe she can,t see that well, maybe she stepped backwards - after all you don’t expect a hole in a shop floor.

that said, a big fine seems a bit pointless, but your comment on “sectioning” the victim seems crass in the extreme

Milk of human kindness somewhat curdled here, OP?

mercalia wrote:WHSmith fined after customer falls through open trapdoor


I ask you, she must have been a bit senile to fall thru a gaping hole? Being older than her I think I would have noticed the trapdoor. Maybe she needs to be put in a home for her own protection? I dont know what the penalties are but it seems WHSMith got off lightly, maybe the court agreed with me? Maybe the old lady thought it was dungeons and dragons?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-46048864

Maybe she didn't see it because she was looking at the card display as the story says. That's why shops have displays to attract customers eyes - they don't actually want them to walk around the store looking at the floor.
A lot of people are injured each year through slipping or tripping over something on the floor which they haven't seen. You think they should all be sectioned? I think there's case to be made for sectioning someone who thinks they should be

Who says she's an old dear? Your thread says more about you than her.

Thousands of people her age have limited vision. Macular Degeneration, Cataracts, Tunnel Vision. Many are undiagnosed and just "get on with life"

Any of these would mean that this hole would not be clearly or even barely visible

Not a case of being sectioned, and not a case of their being a magic cure that would enable them to see, but a clear case of neglect by the Company

I'll let the title stand as is.

We can make our own judgements about the choice of words and how they reflect upon the author.

A general observation though. Our brains seem to be pretty good at deciding where to pay attention and where it may reasonably assume that no special attention is needed. Do you pay close attention to floors in shops ?

PH wrote:Who says she's an old dear? Your thread says more about you than her.

The article says she's 64 and although I'm not one to presume gender the article refers to her as someone who identifies as a female.

Graham wrote:A general observation though. Our brains seem to be pretty good at deciding where to pay attention and where it may reasonably assume that no special attention is needed. Do you pay close attention to floors in shops ?

Another observation; we're excellent at assuming because something hasn't happened to us yet then we are in some way better than those it has happened to - right up to the moment it does...

Perhaps your idea is to 'section' everyone who doesn't quite fit your concept of a 'normal' human being?

Graham wrote: ... We can make our own judgements about the choice of words and how they reflect upon the author. ...

Well said.

Cunobelin wrote:Thousands of people her age have limited vision. Macular Degeneration, Cataracts, Tunnel Vision. Many are undiagnosed and just "get on with life"

Last eye-test, the optician told me I have a developing cataract in one eye. Not unusual at my age. However, she reassured me that it would take 10-20 years before it gave any trouble. I don't expect to live that long! And, at the present moment, my eyesight is pretty good - I can pick out individual stars in the Pleiades for instance.

AMD would scare me, however. I sympathise with those who've got it.

fossala wrote:

PH wrote:Who says she's an old dear? Your thread says more about you than her.

The article says she's 64 and although I'm not one to presume gender the article refers to her as someone who identifies as a female.

The term is ageist, sexist and patronising, I know plenty of women around that age who the term would be wholly inappropriate to describe. The story doesn't draw any relationship between her gender or age and the incident. Did she fall down the hole because she's an old dear? I'm not making that assumption, some of the 60+ women I saw hammering it around the velodrome last week might also have fallen down it, as might I. When such lazy stereotyping is applied to cyclists we rightly object, it has nothing to do with the story, unless you know otherwise?

Graham wrote:I'll let the title stand as is.

We can make our own judgements about the choice of words and how they reflect upon the author.

A general observation though. Our brains seem to be pretty good at deciding where to pay attention and where it may reasonably assume that no special attention is needed. Do you pay close attention to floors in shops ?

I'm not sure what to make of your reply Graham. It opens as if you've made a judgment in your role of moderator and then seems to moves on to comment as a poster. Or was it all intended as moderation? If not, do you think the two ought to be kept separate?

I used to have a mate who when either of us got a really big job(church work usually) we'd share them and as we both used the same sub contractors it made life much easier.
We were once on a big church job,a complete refurb,pews out new stage and pulpit,plastering and new heating system ripping out the old cast iron piping and fit new pipes in the undercroft.
The plumber asked my mate to cut a trap in the floor boards so he could get in and feed the pipes in through it.
My mate's out with the circular saw,asks the plumber where,plumber points to the best place,mate cuts out the trap(about the size of the one in the story link),lifts the boards and in front of about five blokes of varying trades,asks the plumber if it's big enough,turns around and walks straight into the trap disappearing in the undercroft
All subbies at this point head for an exit,and I'm left trying to contain myself looking into the hole shouting "Brian are you alright".
Thankfully he was.

Now to his credit Brian,a top grammer school pupil and university graduate with a degree in civil engineering with a headworx like a Swiss watch,but unfortunately had the incredible ability damage himself at his own hand on a regular basis due to his complete inability to spot danger,he was the type of person who could gleefully saw off the branch of a tree he was sitting on
I once saw him directing lorry load of sand nearly kill himself by reversing onto him as he stood against the corner of a house,only me shouting STOP! saved him.
I also saw him fall backwards off a ladder at chamber height and break his hip
I once had to physically restrain him again at chamber height,from walking on a 14ft scaffold plank with no intermediate support,that he himself had set up

So there are people walking abroad......
Having said that there should be a guard rail around a hole in the floor of a shop that's open to the public