How To Claim Compensation If You Tripped Over A Wire?

By Marlon Fawkes. Updated 9th March 2023. Welcome to our guide to making claims from tripping over wires or tripping over cables. Have you suffered an injury because you tripped over a wire or cable that shouldn’t have been there? If a wire trip hazard caused you injury, this guide shows you whether you could claim compensation for personal injury. We also explain how to prevent tripping over a wire, and how employers could be liable for accidents caused by poor cable management hazards. If you’re thinking ‘I tripped over a wire and it wasn’t my fault;’ and are considering making a trip and fall claim, read on. If you would like to know more about the personal injury compensation guidelines, this guide could help.
Claiming compensation for tripping over wires

In all likelihood, a third party was responsible for ensuring that the location where the accident took place was kept free of slip, trip and fall hazards. And in this case, if it can be proven that this third party was responsible for causing your accident, a personal injury solicitor could be able to process a personal injury claim for trailing cables accidents for you.

Man tripping over a wire in work safety boots

If you need some free legal advice about making a claim, or you have questions related to the contents of this guide, you can speak to our claims team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on 0800 073 8801. They will be waiting to provide you with any assistance you need.

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A Guide To Tripped Over A Wire Accident Claims

In this guide, we cover the basics of making a trip claim, for an accident that was the responsibility of a third party which caused you injury when tripping over wires. You should have all the information you need to begin making intelligent choices about your own claim, once you have finished reading this guide. It begins by going over what a trip accident involving a wire or cable is. We will look at the two issues of liability and eligibility. The guide then moves on to look at some of the most common types of injuries that tripping over a wire could cause.

The middle part of this guide will look at specific examples of the types of claims people make. We will attempt to answer the question, could I claim for tripping over a cable at work? By looking at your employer’s responsibilities related to workplace safety. You will also find information about accidents that happen in a shop or a supermarket. Accidents in a public place are also covered, and we look at which legal entity could be responsible for accidents in various public places.

The final part of this guide gives information related to the financial and legal aspects of making an accident claim. We will give an overview of the process to follow to prepare for your claim, and engage a solicitor to process it for you. You will find that we have listed many of the kinds of damages that a person may receive as part of a settlement, and we have also added a table that gives possibly compensation ranges for a number of different injuries.

Finally, we talk about the service we offer, and how we can arrange for you to use a No Win No Fee solicitor, to have personal injury claims processed. If you have any questions that this guide does not answer, please do reach out to our tripping over wires claims team on the number at the end of this page, and they will help you.

What Is A Tripped Over A Wire Accident?

There are many ways a person can be harmed in an accident caused by a wire or cable that has been left in an inappropriate place. Just look at your own home, how many extension leads and power adapters do you have hidden away? Most offices and places of work have a similar problem. This isn’t a bad thing as long as cables are kept tidy, and safely stowed away. However, it just takes one laptop power supply or a smartphone charging cable to cause an accident. Such accidents at work could lead to injury at work compensation.

For example:

  • A network cable in an office falls out of a structured cabling conduit, onto the floor, and an employee tripped over a wire.
  • The power cable for a floor buffer used in a supermarket was left across a shopping aisle, and a shopper tripped over it.
  • A maintenance team fixing a pothole on a public pavement, leaves a power cable leading from a generator to a piece of equipment, in a place that causes a member of the public to trip over it.

These are all examples of trip accidents that have been caused by a wire or cable that has been allowed to become a hazard. In each case, a third party was responsible for causing the hazard, and the injured party may have a valid cause to make a compensation for tripping on cables claim. We can provide you with a solicitor who can help you to make a tripping over wires claim for similar incidents. Use the number below to speak to a claim advisor, to learn more.

What Injuries May Be Caused By Tripping Over A Wire Or Cable?

A trip accident could be construed as a minor accident, caused by very common hazards such as a cable or wire. However, if you have tripped over a loose wire, you can suffer from some very serious injuries indeed, especially if you are an elderly person with a medical condition such as osteoporosis. For example:

  • At the lower end of the scale, we have cuts, lacerations, bruises and scrapes.
  • Moving up in severity, we have dislocations, and soft tissue injuries such as sprains and strains.
  • Even more serious, are bone fractures. These can be simple fractures or compound fractures.
  • Head injuries are also a fairly serious injury trip victims can suffer. Even a minor head trauma can cause a concussion, and more extreme cases can cause permanent brain damage or even death.
  • Serious injuries such as a fractured pelvis, a broken back, or any other form of traumatic injury can be caused by tripping over a cable.

No matter what kind of injury you have suffered, if it was caused by tripping over a wire or cable that was left causing an obstruction by a third party, you could have a valid reason to make a claim for the harm you have suffered. If you use the number at the bottom of this page, you can speak to our claims team to find out if your tripping over wires claim is valid.

Slip Trip and Fall Claims – Am I Eligible To Claim If I Got Injured At Work?

Your employer has a legal responsibility to provide you with a working environment that has been made safe through them following reasonably practicable steps. This is part of the duty of care that they owe to you.

Their responsibility regarding wires at your place of work could be to:

  • Ensure that they are placed in areas, or arranged in ways, that minimise the trip or slip risk that they could pose
  • Ensure that warnings signs or other necessary safety measures are in place if the wires cannot be stored away safely
  • Respond to, or deal, with any loosely placed wires and inform you and your colleagues of the risk that they could pose

There are several ways that this duty can be breached. If you have been injured in an accident involving wires in your workplace, you can reach out to one of our advisers for a free evaluation about whether your employer could be found liable. You can reach out for free, at any time, to make any enquiries about workplace slip trip and fall claims.

Can I Claim If I Tripped Over A Loose Wire Or Cable In A Supermarket Or Shop?

The same Health & Safety Executive regulations related to cable safety covered in the previous section, also apply to all retail premises. Therefore, if you tripped over a loose cable in a shop or tripped over a loose cable in a supermarket, you could be able to make a claim, if the hazard that caused the accident was the responsibility of the operator of the premises.

Something that you can do if you are injured by tripping over a wire in a shop, is to take photographs of the offending cable. As the operator of the premises is likely to remove the hazard promptly. Getting this kind of photographic evidence will add weight to your claim. Additionally, if the shop or supermarket operates an accident reporting procedure, you should follow it, ensuring that your accident has been officially recorded.

We can provide you with a solicitor to process your accident claim for you. Our team of claim experts can tell you more about this, if you call them on the number below.

Could I Claim If I Tripped Over A Loose Wire Or Cable In A Public Place?

This section covers two distinct types of public place accidents. It will cover public places that your local council is responsible for maintaining to a safe standard. This would include, for example:

  • Public parks and playgrounds.
  • Public car parks.
  • A public street or road.
  • Public buildings operated by the council.
  • Council-run leisure facilities.

Wire Trip Hazard Claims – Other tripping over wires injury claim accidents

The second type of public place accidents relates to those which take place within premises operated by a business or other organisation. Premises that the public is allowed to use, for example:

  • A shopping mall.
  • An airport.
  • A train station.
  • A pay and display car park.

Respectively, either the council or the operator of the premises is expected to ensure that it is safe for the public to use. This includes removing a wire trip hazard or cables that could cause a member of the public to trip. When trip hazards are not mitigated to Health & Safety Standards, and this results in an injury to a member of the public who tripped over a loose wire, the injured party could have due cause to make a compensation claim for the harm they have suffered from tripping over wires.

How To Claim Compensation After Tripping Over A Wire Or Cable

Tripping over a wire doesn’t always lead to you being able to claim compensation. You would need to satisfy certain criteria to be able to claim. These criteria include:

  1. Being able to prove that someone owed you a duty of care. This could have been an employer, a landlord, or the occupier of premises you were injured on, for example. 
  2. Evidence that there was a breach of that duty of care towards you.
  3. Proving that the breach caused your wire trip injury
  4. Claiming within the relevant personal injury claims time limit (usually three years from the date of the accident but some exceptions could apply).

I tripped over a wire and want to claim – what should I do?

To support your claim, there are several steps you could take:

  1. Take photographs of the scene and your injuries
  2. Report the wire trip accident if appropriate, such as to an employer or business whose wire you tripped on.
  3. Seek medical attention.
  4. Gather contact details for those that witnessed your accident.
  5. See if there is CCTV footage of your accident.
  6. Seek legal advice.

It’s free to get legal advice from Accident Claims UK. Our advisors can check your eligibility to claim compensation for injuries sustained from tripping over a wire at work or in a public place. If it’s found you have a valid claim, they could assign a solicitor to represent your case. Get in touch for more information.

What Could I Claim Damages For If I Tripped Over A Wire And Was Injured?

If your personal injury lawyer successful secures a compensation settlement for you for your wire trip hazard accident, it will comprise of a number of different types of damages, for example:

  • Wire trip hazard general damages (to compensate for physical and psychological harm):
    • Pain and suffering – at the time of the accident or when receiving emergency treatment.
    • Mental trauma – caused by the shock of the accident.
    • Psychological injuries – such as post-traumatic stress disorder caused by either the accident itself, or the impact of your injuries on your life.
    • Painful treatment – if your injuries will require long-term, painful medical treatment to heal.
    • Permanent disability – if you will never recover from your injuries fully.
  • Wire trip hazard special damages (to compensate for financial and other losses):
    • The cost of care – for hiring in home help or nurse.
    • Travel costs – if you had to travel to get treatment, or to deal with the claim itself.
    • Medical fees – if you had to pay for private treatment that was not available from the NHS.
    • Lost income – if you had to take time away from work and were not paid.
    • Lowered prospects – if your working life will be negatively affected in the future.

If you would like to learn about the kinds of damages you could claim, based on your own circumstances, speak to a member of our tripping over wires claims team on the number below.

Compensation For Personal Injury

If you are thinking of starting a slip, trip and fall claim, you might want to know how much compensation for the personal injury you’ve sustained that you could receive. If so, you might have looked for a personal injury claim calculator to give you a rough idea of your payout.

A compensation calculator can provide an estimate of how much your claim is worth. However, as an alternative, we have created a table using figures from the Judicial College Guidelines. This is a document that contains compensation brackets for different injuries. Legal professionals can use it to help them value the general damages head of claim. General damages seek to compensate for the pain and suffering of the injuries you sustained. 

We have used the 2022 edition of the personal injury compensation guidelines to populate the table below. We should point out that all claims are different, and no two payouts are the same. 

The Compensation Table

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What Type of Injury? How Severe Was It? Possible Compensation Information
Injured hand Minor up to serious Up to £61,910 Hand injuries ranging in severity from cuts and lacerations, burns, etc. through all forms of soft-tissue injuries and fractured bones, to paralysis or total amputation of one or both hands.
Injured wrist Minor up to severe Up to £59,860 Harm to the wrist, that could be as minor as bruises or cuts, or range up through STI (sprains and strains), fractures, and dislocations, to some level of paralysis of the wrist.
Injured arm Moderate up to severe Up to £137,160 A range of injuries to the arm, that could be as slight as grazes, burns or cuts, all the way up through sprains, strains and other STI, dislocations and fractures, to paralysis or amputation of the arm above or below the elbow.
Injured finger Minor up to severe Up to £90,750 Finger injuries from cuts, scrapes, burns, scales, etc. through more serious injuries such as dislocation and fractures, to amputation of one or more of the fingers.
Injured thumb Minor up to severe Up to £54,830 Thumb injuries from cuts, scrapes, burns, scales, etc. through more serious injuries such as dislocation and fractures, to amputation of one or both of the thumbs.
Injured back Minor up to severe Up to £160,980 Ranging from damage to the skin of the back (cuts, lacerations, burns, grazes, etc) through soft tissue injuries such as strains or sprains, as well as fractured or dislocated vertebrae, to some level of loss of function of the back.
Injured neck Minor up to severe Up to the region of
£148,330		 Ranging from damage to the skin of the neck (cuts, lacerations, burns, grazes, etc) through soft tissue injuries such as strains or sprains, as well as fractured or dislocated vertebrae, to some level of loss of function of the neck.
Injured toe Moderate up to severe Up to £56,080 Toe injuries from cuts, scrapes, burns, scales, etc. through more serious injuries such as dislocation and fractures, to amputation of one or more of the toes.
Injured ankle Minor up to severe Up to £69,700 Harm to the ankle, that could be as minor as bruises or cuts, or range up through STI (sprains and strains), fractures, and dislocations, to some level of paralysis of the ankle.
Injured foot Minor up to very severe Up to £201,490 Foot injuries ranging in severity from cuts and lacerations, burns, etc. through all forms of soft-tissue injuries and fractured bones, to paralysis or total amputation of one or both feet.
Injured leg Minor up to severe Up to £137,470 A range of injuries to the leg, that could be as slight as grazes, burns or cuts, all the way up through sprains, strains and other STI, dislocations and fractures, to paralysis or amputation of the leg above or below the knee.

If you would like more personalised guidance on how much your payout could be, however, we could give you further information over the phone.

No Win No Fee Tripped Over A Wire Accident Compensation

Have you tripped over a trailing wire or cable and been injured? If so, if a third party was even partially responsible for causing the accident in which you were harmed, you could be able to make a claim. We can provide you with a No Win No Fee solicitor to process your claim for you. There is no charge to start the claim or while it is processed. You only pay a fee when your solicitor as received compensation for you, if they don’t then there is no charge at all. Fees are deducted from any compensation the solicitor receives for you.

How Could Accident Claims UK Help Me With Tripping Over Cables Claims?

Our tripping over cables claims team can help you in many ways, by providing helpful legal advice, and critical information. They will be able to tell you which personal injury claims time limit applies. They will also be able to help you prepare for having your claim valued, even if you have already used a to get a personal injury claims calculator rough estimate. This will include organising a medical examination to have your injuries evaluated. They will also explain to you how one of our solicitors could be able to process a tripping over wires claim for you.

Contact Our Accident Claims Specialists About Tripping Over Cables Claims

Have you tripped over wires and been hurt in an accident that wasn’t your fault? Do you need some free legal advice on how to best proceed with a claim? Or maybe you just need to know a little more about the claims process? No matter what you need, our claims team is available 24/7 on 0800 073 8801, to give you the answers and help you need. Contact them today.

Tripping Accident Claim Resources For Tripping Over Wires Claims

These external links have pertinent information that could relate to your claim:

H&SE information on slip, trip and fall accidents

Statistics related to slips, trips and falls in the UK

Information about employer’s liability insurance

You may also like to take a look at these other, similar guides:

How to make a claim for a trip, slip or fall

Claiming for a paving accident

A guide to claiming for an accident in a public place

If you’ve tripped over a wire and would like to know if you can claim, contact our advisors. We could offer free legal advice. Furthermore, we could provide you with a solicitor if you’re eligible to claim.