Kerb fall ‘shatters’ mum’s hip
A 77-year-old Nelson woman who broke her hip falling from an unusually high kerb is grateful a railing is being put at the site, but questioning why it wasn’t installed to begin with.
Madeleine Pryce was on her first outing after the Covid-19 lockdown on May 26 when she visited the Salvation Army Family Store in Montgomery Square car park.
After leaving the shop she stepped off the kerb, expecting the usual 10cm step, only to fall and seriously injure herself on a 30cm drop.
‘‘It was quite a terrifying experience.’’
She broke her hip, had a hip replacement two days later and was in hospital for three weeks.
‘‘It’s been painful, debilitating, frustrating and all of those things. And totally unnecessary.’’
She said it was a six-month recovery all up, which was ‘‘a bit hard to take.’’
Pryce’s daughter Lara Buswell said people from the Salvation Army shop called the ambulance for
‘‘It’s been painful, debilitating, frustrating and all of those things. And totally unnecessary.’’ Lara Buswell
About her mother’s fall
her mother, and told her they knew of two other people who had injured themselves in the same way.
Buswell first contacted the Nelson City Council on May 29 to raise the issue, saying something needed to be done ‘‘ASAP’’. She was pleased to learn a rail would be put in, but disappointed with the length of time it had taken to mitigate the risk.
She was also upset no-one had made an effort to speak to her mum and ‘‘just say; ‘Sorry’.’’
‘‘She’s in recovery, but it’s going to take her a while. This is lifechanging for her, she might not drive again.’’
Mayor Rachel Reese’s assistant Jenny Tyne emailed Buswell on Thursday on Reese’s behalf as the mayor was chairing a meeting. The email said a 14m stainless steel railing would be installed as a priority. It could take three weeks to be completed.
Tyne wrote that the mayor passed on her "sincere apologies on behalf of the council for the delay in getting back to you’’ and that she was "extremely sorry to hear about your mother’s broken hip".
If it was three weeks away from completion, it would be more than two months since the accident,
Buswell said.
‘‘I don’t want anything from the council. I just don’t want this to happen to anyone else.’’
Pryce said she was pleased the council had recognised the problem, and that no-one else would have to go through what she had, but added ‘‘it would have been nice if someone had phoned to apologise and check if they could do anything to help’’.
She was grateful for her daughter. ‘‘I can’t help thinking nothing would’ve been happened if she hadn’t followed it up.’’
In the first response to Buswell, on June 1, the council’s team leader of transport operations Matthew Bruce said the council was ‘‘sorry to hear of your mother injuring herself in the CBD.’’
He said the tall kerb was a compromise between existing building floor-levels, wheelchair accessibility, and footpath drainage requirements. ‘‘A compromise was reached whereby a two per cent cross-fall footpath was maintained . . . due to the higher than normal kerb height, you’ll notice we installed a yellow painted line across the top of the kerb to help delineate the edge.’’
Cross-falls are measured in percentages, and according to a Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency pedestrian planning guide must always be between one and two per cent.