An elderly woman is suing supermarket giant Aldi after she suffered a fractured hip when she was struck by a trolley and fell to the ground at a Victorian store during a television buying frenzy.
The 73-year-old Geelong woman, who does not want to be named, was injured during a “special buys” sale at the Corio supermarket in August last year.
In a statement of claim seen by NCA NewsWire, lawyers for the injured woman said Aldi failed to control the crowd and allowed customers to use trolleys in a dangerous or careless manner.
Arnold Thomas and Becker Lawyers principal Jodie Harris, who is representing the injured woman, told NCA NewsWire on Monday that there had been only six large screen televisions available in the store that day.
“There was no security outside and no one seeking to control the entry once the doors opened,” Ms Harris said.
“There had been quite a quite a high level of interest in these particular televisions.
“The doors opened and there was a bit of a rush of some people going in, and my client was hit with a trolley by another customer and she fell to the ground in front of everyone else who was trying to enter.
“Some people just walked around her. Someone lifted a trolley up over the top of her to continue on to get their television and she sort of dragged herself up.
“There was one other customer who did assist her, but there weren’t any Aldi staff there who were providing any assistance at all.”
The injured woman allegedly suffered an intracapsular fracture of the neck of the left femur, ongoing trochanteric bursitis, depression and anxiety.
Ms Harris said Aldi had ultimately failed in their duty of care.
“If you are going to promote something heavily, you’re wanting to drive crowds to your store to pick up those particular items, you want the interest level to be high,” she said.
“If you’re doing that, then an obligation falls upon you to manage the number of people, because there’s only limited amounts available.
“People are keen to try and get it, emotions run high, and people are trying to get in before everyone else, and that creates a situation where it is foreseeable that someone could sustain an injury in those circumstances.
“If that’s foreseeable, then Aldi have an obligation to have a system in place to manage those crowds.”
Ms Harris suggested a ticketing system might have been appropriate.
“If they know they’ve only got six, there’s a staff member and some security out the front handing out six tickets, and that’s all that’s available,” she said.
“Or there’s something being done by them to control the safe entry into the premises without there being a rush to get in and a crash situation where someone sustains injury.”
Aldi has declined to comment.
Extracted from Perth Now
