Gym related injury

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mader

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Hi,

I work in a fitness center and we recently had a situation with an injury and I was curious to hear opinions about what happened.

First off, our fitness center is divided into three parts: selectorize (machines), free weights, and cardio. However, people are allowed to take things like dumbells and free weight plates to be incorporated into their workout into any section so long as it doesnt create a hazard. The injury involved an older woman in her 50s and she was climbing down from one of the machines in the selectorize area. The machine the lady was on was a paramount weight-assisted chin/dip machine that can be seen here http://www.paramountfitness.com/showroom/page_ap_4000_wtastdchindip.html

as you may see, the machine can be a bit difficult for someone to climb up and down from. from what I can understand, there was a weight plate leaning against the outer right side of the machine and when she went to step down she either missed the step or slipped and ended up rolling her ankle on the weight plate.

weight plates are left there on occasion by patrons because they sometimes wish to perform the exercise without the assistance bar or with extra resistance. as soon as an employee is aware that a plate has been left, they usually pick it up and return it to the free weight area. however this time an injury occured before it was removed, and she claims that is negligence.

I am fairly certain the lady will be compensated because she doesn't have insurance and it is just the right thing to do, but I would like to hear more opinions on accidents that occur in high-risk areas such as a fitness center. particularly ones involving people not recognizing their limits and getting hurt.
 
I am not so sure the lady will be compensated although I am sorry to hear that she was injured. To begin, she must have seen the weight plate against the machine when she began to perform the exercise so, at the very least, she is contributorily negligent since she knew it was there.

Second, I don't think this is negligence and unfortunately too many believe that when they get hurt, someone else should pay for it. I'm not sure it is the right thing that the club pay for her injury. If she stepped wrong off the machine because it is difficult to navigate, should the club be responsible for her missed step? How about overworking one's self on a treadmill? Should the club pay for the fact that the machine didn't compensate perfectly for the user's age/weight and other conditions that might make the user more susceptible to a strained muscle?

But getting down to law, in order to prove a negligence case the plaintiff must prove that there was a duty that was neglected and that the duty had a causal relationship to the injury. First you must determine whether the club had a duty to keep the area clear of weights by the machine. One could say that they have a reasonable duty to do so. The plaintiff would have to prove that this duty was breached -- was it? The key word is reasonable and that does not mean absolute. If the staff keeps the area clear by performing 3-5 minute sweeps of the club, I don't think many can argue the reasonableness of the club's actions.

Second, the plaintiff must determine that the injury was caused in some fashion by the weight plate and not by misstepping. We don't know that this is the cause. She would also be contributorily negligent IMHO and I think that any award would be reduced, if there was one. If it was caused by misstepping, I'm not sure how anyone can claim that the club was responsible because what duty was breached?

I could be wrong but I think that most believe that if someone gets injured the "deep pocket" company should pay because they can afford to do so. I don't think that is always the case because (1) they cannnot usually afford to pay (2) it's not right that they pay if they really weren't at fault. I don't think there should be much of a case here.

Originally posted by mader
Hi,

I work in a fitness center and we recently had a situation with an injury and I was curious to hear opinions about what happened.

First off, our fitness center is divided into three parts: selectorize (machines), free weights, and cardio. However, people are allowed to take things like dumbells and free weight plates to be incorporated into their workout into any section so long as it doesnt create a hazard. The injury involved an older woman in her 50s and she was climbing down from one of the machines in the selectorize area. The machine the lady was on was a paramount weight-assisted chin/dip machine that can be seen here http://www.paramountfitness.com/showroom/page_ap_4000_wtastdchindip.html

as you may see, the machine can be a bit difficult for someone to climb up and down from. from what I can understand, there was a weight plate leaning against the outer right side of the machine and when she went to step down she either missed the step or slipped and ended up rolling her ankle on the weight plate.

weight plates are left there on occasion by patrons because they sometimes wish to perform the exercise without the assistance bar or with extra resistance. as soon as an employee is aware that a plate has been left, they usually pick it up and return it to the free weight area. however this time an injury occured before it was removed, and she claims that is negligence.

I am fairly certain the lady will be compensated because she doesn't have insurance and it is just the right thing to do, but I would like to hear more opinions on accidents that occur in high-risk areas such as a fitness center. particularly ones involving people not recognizing their limits and getting hurt.
 
he key word is reasonable and that does not mean absolute. If the staff keeps the area clear by performing 3-5 minute sweeps of the club, I don't think many can argue the reasonableness of the club's actions.

I should probably describe a little more about the situation of the workers. At the time, there were three workers present for ~90 patrons. Our workers are required to greet patrons, clean equipment, provide spotting and/or instruction on equipment (not personal train), and attend to any emergency situations. Employee heirarchy as of right now starts with the attendants and above them are two Graduate Assistants and above them is the director. Only the attendants are there at night, so there is no true supervisor for the gym at those times (Changing this was already in the works as we started accepting applications for supervisors). Anyway, the lady claims that all three workers were up at the front desk and not attending to their job duties. The employees say otherwise. However, I will admit it is not an uncommon occurance to see the majority of the employees at the front desk for an extended period of time.

Now, more about the injury. At the time of the incident, the lady did not inform any of the attendants of her situation. None of them witnessed her fall, none of them knew anyone had gotten hurt, and she walked out of the fitness center on her own power. None of the employees witnessed anyone limping or appearing to be injured. You have to walk by the front desk to get out. After a while, the lady apparently realized her injury was more serious than she thought, and then proceeded to contact the building supervisor. The building supervisor is responsible for handling all situations in the whole building, of which the fitness center is a part of. She filed an accident report, and the building supervisor then took statements from the fitness center attendants. The lady suffered a broken ankle btw.

I'll end this with a little more from my personal experience. At night, the fitness center is fairly busy. With anymore than 50 people in there, the older people begin to get uncomfortable because the majority of the people are college students, which is why the older people mainly come in the mornings. The maximum number of people I have seen in there is ~130. I cannot count the number of times an older patron has come in the morning and expressed their dislike of how crowded it is in the evenings. However, the college students find it to be acceptable. We have around 70 selectorize machines, 35 cardio machines, and a somewhat small free weight section. The reason I give you these numbers is to give you a better idea of what is going on and to be able to judge a "reasonable" level of service. At those peak times there is not a machine that is idle. There are weights being moved, attachments being added to and taken from machines, mats unfolded and folded, ab balls, medicine balls. In my opinion, it is not reasonable to expect the weights to be cleaned up every 3-5 minutes. Instead, employees should be looking for obvious hazards and i would not consider a weight plate sitting by that machine an obvious hazard.

Sorry for the long post, hope you didnt lose interest.
 
Kept my interest for all posts!!! :D :D

Like Freebird mentioned, proof would have to be offered, that the accident happened, only because the employee's weren't doing their duties.

Can she prove the wieght was there for ..... hell.... 15 minutes???

How long did she work out on the machine, how long was the weight there? Can she say that she saw an attendant walk by the machine, and NOT move the weight..

In my non-experienced mind, looks like BS!! :D
 
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