Trip traps woman in Tron
A golfing grandma may have to hang up her clubs after tripping over a jutting section of a Hamilton footpath.
Now she wants answers from the Hamilton City Council for what she thinks was an avoidable accident.
Dawn King, 81, was walking her son’s black labrador, Max, around the block in Rototuna yesterday when she tripped and fell over a lip of concrete on Cate Rd.
‘‘I went down and I thought, oh shoot, now what? A woman came to help me, but I got up by myself as I had gone down on my right knee, right over on my face.’’
Despite being in a lot of pain, King managed to hobble 400 metres back to her son’s house.
She’d arrived the previous day from Normanby, South Taranaki, in preparation for her grandson’s 18th birthday.
The avid golfer thought a spa would ease her pain but her son, Kevin King, took her to Rototuna Accident and Emergency.
King had both knees replaced in the past two years, so Kevin didn’t want to take any risks. X-rays revealed a one millimetre break on the inside of her kneecap.
Yet because there isn’t complete separation it means King will avoid surgery at this stage.
She will be in a cast and on crutches for the next four weeks. I think the council should be responsible,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m 81 and, ok, I’m pretty active. But you take kids on scooters, they must have a hell of a fall on those things.
‘‘I thought a big city like Hamilton, they would be more particular. Small towns like we’ve got – if you call them they come out straight away.’’
‘‘I went down and I thought, oh shoot, now what?’’
Dawn King
She contacted Hamilton City Council on May 31. A week later and after a call from Stuff, a council staffer visited the site.
It is now due to be fixed within the week, transportation manager Jason Harrison said.
‘‘It’s likely that we’ll grind the concrete down so it is flush with the rest of the footpath, or we may smooth out the rise of the footpath with asphalt. Either way the footpath trip hazard will be removed.
‘‘We’ve also been in direct contact [on Wednesday] with the woman who tripped to let her know we are working quickly to fix this, and to wish her a speedy recovery.’’
Harrison, said the council audits the city footpaths twice a year.
King hadn’t planned on being in Hamilton longer than a week so she has limited clothing and medication.
And she just wants to get home.