Mumbai's infamous craters spare no one; soap queen trips on a pothole and fractures her wrist while jogging

Producer Ekta Kapoor is still raking in the moolah from her last film Once Upon A Time In Mumbai but she won't be cashing any of those cheques just yet. The soap queen has cracked her wrist bone, rendering her right hand unusable for the time being.



Ekta loves her daily jog and makes it a point to do so once a day. If work doesn't permit her to do it during the day, she makes sure she hits the road at night,u00a0 her bodyguards in tow. On Tuesday morning, Ekta was running near her home in Juhu, and while trying to miss one of the big potholes, she tripped on the rubble and fell. She injured her right hand, which took the entire weight of her fall.

Rushed to hospital
Says an insider, "Ekta landed hard on her right hand wrist, cracking it. She began screaming in agony, even as her guards rushed to help her. They helped her into the car that follows them and rushed her to a hospital in Juhu Scheme."

The doctor nursed the open wound, gave her a tetanus shot and asked her to rest her hand. The source adds, "Right now, the wrist has been plastered and she is wearing a sling around her neck to support her wrist. She is having a tough time eating as she isn't used to using her left hand to hold the spoon. The wrist will have to remain in plaster for four weeks. The doc has also advised her to stay at home and recuperate."

But the TV czarina will be travelling to Dubai over the weekend. "Ekta hasn't taken a break for a long time and this trip is a work-cum-holiday. She is in no mood to pay heed to the doc's advice, though she has promised him that she will take all the necessary precautions and wear the sling all the time and won't exert her wrist. She plans to be careful while jogging as the road near her house is a mess with too many potholes."

FACT: Ekta hates to jog indoors even though there are state-of-the-art treadmills at her home. She prefers to run outdoors.

CLAIMS IN CASE OF BADLY MAINTAINED AMERICAN SIDEWALKS
In the USA, if you do something as simple as tripping and falling over a broken sidewalk and incurring a premise liability claim injury, you and your premise liability attorney can only file a premise liability lawsuit if you first file a notice of claim with the government agency that "owns" that sidewalk within 60 days, and that claim is rejected. Various states have various rules pertaining to premise liability claim injuries.
In New York, for those who have been injured as a result of a broken or uneven sidewalk, a claim and/or lawsuit will most likely be brought against NYC (subject to certain legal conditions) as it is responsible for ensuring public roadways and sidewalks are reasonably safe.
In most cases, sidewalks are public easements essentially owned by the Town or City where they exist. However, in New Jersey it is difficult to sue the governmental entity responsible for the sidewalk. Even if it causes serious personal injuries, the New Jersey Tort's Claim Act places restrictions on the ability to sue a government entity for an accident caused as a result of a condition of their sidewalk.

From the
Mid Day Archives
Tuesday, February 1, 2000
COURT ORDERS BMC TO PAY RS 1.27 LAKH TO SCOOTERIST FOR POTHOLE MISHAP
A pothole on Krishanchand Road, Bandra Reclamation, which led to a scooterist's fall, has cost the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Rs 1,27,300!
In a landmark judgement delivered on Saturday (January 29, 2000), Additional Sessions Judge
A M Thipsay ordered the BMC to pay Anant Datar this amount as compensation for the injuries he suffered in the accident in 1985.
The court directed the BMC to pay Rs 47,500, which Datar demanded for expenditure incurred on treatment and earnings he was deprived of during the four months he was laid up at home. The rest of the amount is interest at the rate of 12 per cent that the BMC will have to cough up from the date the suit was filed till the day of the court order.
The BMC has also been asked to bear the cost of the suit and it will have to pay an additional six per cent interest on the entire amount for every day it delays in making the payment to Datar.
The accident occurred on the night of June 18, 1985 as Datar was returning home. He was thrown off his two-wheeler on the road alongside Transit Camp Chawl No 25.
There were no streetlights, he said. Among the passersby who attended on him were residents, who told him the road had been dug up a week earlier to lay a water pipeline. Despite four similar accidents, repeated complaints to the local H (West) Ward office yielded no response, they said.
They offered to get his scooter repaired and took him home in a taxi. He had to be helped up to his third floor residence in Vile Parle (E).
Datar was given painkillers by a family doctor and an X-Ray taken the next day detected a fracture on the neck of the thighbone. He was operated upon at Durga Fracture Clinic and Accident Hospital, Andheri, to rectify the fracture and discharged after about a fortnight.
The advocate resumed his normal duties on October 7, 1985, after three-and-a-half months of complete rest. On November 11 that same year, Datar sent legal notices to the city municipal commissioner and the ward officer concerned under Section 527 (1) of the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act (1888), claiming compensation for negligence and various acts of commission and omission in discharge of their duties.
Datar, who specialises in cases under the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act (1948) and the Rent Act, explained that it was the BMC's responsibility to properly maintain civic facilities.
Besides, it was the civic body's duty to give adequate warning to pedestrians and vehicular traffic of construction or repair work, which was not done in this case, he said.
The BMC can appeal to the HC against the order. But it will have to first deposit with the court the money it has been directed to pay Datar.