Whenever we enter into a Shopping Center, we are usually careful with the automatic opening and closing access doors because we fear that they may fail and trap us due to an incorrect closing.

This happened to a client of this law firm in Alicante, and the consequences for her have been very bad because of the significant physical damage caused by an error in the opening and closing system of the doors, which as we will see later will cause her lifelong consequences.

Specialist damage lawyers in Alicante of Carlos Baño León has had to intervene recently in this past Christmas, when our client had a brutal crash with the doors of a well-known department store in Alicante capital when the doors closed abruptly when she was accessing the center.

MALFUNCTION OF OPENING AND CLOSING SENSORS

According to an expert’s report, it was concluded that “…the deficient or malfunctioning of the sensors for opening and closing the doors was established as proven, and it was understood that in this report was sufficiently justified that the cause of the accident was due to this fact.

In other words, the cause of the accident was the malfunctioning of the doors”.

The events, after THE ACCIDENT, are a clear example of the behavior that the injured party usually follows after suffering an accident and one of the purposes of this article is to attract your attention so that you know how to act in a similar case, so that later on you may not be harmed because of the lack of evidence.

When our client was entering the shopping centre felt a brutal blow in her shoulder and head that made her fall suddenly to the ground, being unconscious for a while due to the significant impact caused by the wrong closing of the doors that had been opened because of an evident failure, when she entered and she was in motion.

She was reanimated at the Center by a security guard and by her friend with whom she went to the Shopping Center and she left it when the ambulance that had been called arrived a few minutes later.

ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO AFTER AN ACCIDENT TAKES PLACE

At that moment she was not there to gather testimonies of third parties as possible witnesses but her friend could have done it, but in those moments it is not easy to react and that is why our advice is that if an accident happens to you and as far as possible you should gather testimonies of third parties as possible witnesses, and take their personal data for their location in case you might need them in the future.

They also didn’t get the details of the security guard, who could have helped them, but at that moment they were only thinking about being attended to, apart from the fact that she was unconscious.

She was brought by ambulance and taken to a hospital where she received emergency treatment and she is still under medical treatment.

At this point, specialist damage lawyers of Carlos Baño León always advise that when the doctor asks us and collects data about the cause of the injuries, you must be clear that you must describe to the medical personnel the cause of the accident and it is an important element to explain well what happened and then make sure that it is well written, and this is to avoid controversy on this point, later in case of a trial.

In case of trial (insurance companies hardly accept and compromise out of Court) the testimony given by the injured party as soon as the accident occurs is a very important evidence, because it takes place as soon as the accident occurs and therefore it is understood that it is a honest and truthful statement (nobody is going to lie at that moment). If we have not recounted the facts or the medical personnel who attended us in the Emergency Department have made a mistake or have not done it clearly, this will be a disadvantage because it can be interpreted as a contradiction that can work against you.

A spontaneous statement made after an accident occurs will always be valued more highly than a statement made months later in field of a legal claim.

If the Insurance Company does not accept responsibility for the accident, you will need all the best possible evidence as well as the ability to prove at all times coherence with your account of the events and your behavior.

PRELIMINARY LEGAL PROCEEDINGS FOR EVIDENCE COLLECTION

In the specific case we are analyzing, days after the accident our client, through other lawyers tried to contact the Shopping Center, and did not get a proper answer, so our client was in a situation where no one was responsible for the damages she had suffered and she did not know how to prove it.

Faced with this lack of evidence, Carlos Baño Leon’s lawyers specialized in damages in Alicante collected and obtained certain evidence about the accident, and all this because in the event that the insurance company does not immediately recognize the responsibility of the accident, it will be convenient to have evidence of what happened because the passage of time could complicate its obtaining.

Our civil lawyers also requested as an essential action preliminary proceedings in the Court in order to obtain a copy of the cameras recording of that shopping center on that day and time and thus be able to prove how the accident occurred, how it damaged her head and shoulder, and how our client was totally unaware of its occurrence, which was solely and exclusively due to a malfunction of the access doors and therefore the responsibility of the shopping center.

We will comment this procedure separately, on our website, in a very short period of time, given its importance, and thanks to our knowledge because this law firm in Alicante has had the opportunity to intervene in several of these cases.

As a consequence of our claim for preliminary proceedings, the Court requested the company to provide the video recordings, which the company did by providing a copy to Carlos Baño León’s lawyers specialized in damages, who within the term stated by law filed the legal claim for damages against the company, and now we are waiting to reach an agreement with the insurance company.