Mushroom picker: Fall wasn’t smart
She is suing over accident
A MUSHROOM picker, who claims she can never work again due to a back injury from a fall, has agreed that standing on a stool with wheels was ‘not a smart thing to do’.
Mother-of-two Ewa Rolbiecka, 51, has alleged that she fell because she had to balance with one foot on a low, wheeled stool to pick mushrooms from a high shelf at Kennedy Mushrooms in Arklow, Co. Wicklow.
She claimed that only one high platform was in working order on the day, which was in use elsewhere, and that pickers regularly balanced on the low stools to do the job, even though it was dangerous.
But Kennedy Mushrooms is strongly denying liability for Ms Rolbiecka’s accident, and disputes the extent of her alleged injury – showing the High Court a film of the plaintiff cycling uphill, wearing high heels. Its counsel, Finbarr Fox SC, told Ms Rolbiecka that the practice she described of balancing on a low stool was ‘forbidden’.
And he said her two co-workers would be giving evidence in support of Kennedy Mushrooms, even though they no longer worked there.
Referring to her decision to stand on the stool, he asked: ‘Did you think it was a sensible thing to do?’
She replied: ‘I don’t think it was a smart thing to do. But if there was a high platform available I would use the platform instead.’
Mr Fox suggested she simply ‘couldn’t be bothered’ to wait for a platform. She said this was not true.
Ms Rolbiecka, who is originally from Poland but has been living in Ireland for 13 years, told the court the accident happened on January 3, 2016, in a polytunnel on the farm.
She said she had one foot on the low platform and the other on the middle mushroom shelf when she became unbalanced, falling hard on her right foot and jarring her back.
The court heard she suffered a compression of the nerve root in her back. She was taken to hospital by her husband and underwent various treatments and medications, but still experiences ongoing back pain, the court was told.
Mr Fox said the extent of the plaintiff’s injuries was also being challenged by the mushroom farm.
Ms Rolbiecka insisted she could no longer walk without being careful, could not wear high heels, could not ride a bicycle any longer and was in pain after using a vacuum cleaner.
But Mr Fox said a video recorded in December 2016, which was shown to the court, showed the plaintiff cycling up a hill, wearing heels, and then getting off to push the bicycle when the hill got steeper.
She replied: ‘I had injections in my spine, and in the beginning I felt much better.’
Mr Fox asked: ‘Are you saying that woman on that bicycle wouldn’t be able to go to work?’
Ms Rolbiecka did not answer the question directly, but said she had always loved cycling. She said she had good days and bad days.
The case continues before Judge Bernard Barton. helen.bruce@dailymail.ie
Plaintiff seen cycling uphill in high heels