A museum accident compensation award of approximately €67,000 has been approved at the High Court for an Australian tourist who fell and injured his leg when he slipped and rolled down stone stairs at the National Museum of Ireland.
Presiding judge Justice Bronagh O’Hanlon told the High Court that the museum’s Portland stone steps had been shiny and slippery at the time that Warren Baldwin (70), from Revesby New South Wales, ruptured a leg tendon in the accident on the steps. Mr Baldwin suffered major trauma, inconvenience and costs due to the fall.
On June 5, 2016 Mr Baldwin, slipped and fell on the third step from the end of the staircase he was descending in the National Museum. The steps were constructed in 1890, when the museum, located in Kildare Street building was developed.
Justice O’Hanlon said that the accident took place due to negligence in not have a railing in place for a to guide a person down the whole of the seven-step staircase.
She went on to say that Mr Baldwin would not have fallen if a proper safe and safe handrail in place on the steps at the time the accident took place. The wrought-iron bannister that is there is topped by a wooden rail and finishes at the third-last step where it links up with a stone balustrade.
Legal counsel for the National Museum of Ireland said that there was no problems with the stairs when the accident took place. They went on to say that there had been one handrail in place to guide people down the stairs and that of the 470,000 people attending, the museum during 2016 Mr Baldwin was the only individual who fell while walking down the stairs.
Justice O’Hanlon made the museum accident compensation award of €66,989 for Mr Baldwin and said that the museum did not fulfil it duty of care towards the safety of its visitors.