Every street, community, town, and state has a building plan incorporating residential areas, commercial areas, schools, hospitals, and the highway. These environmental designs are carefully laid out and approved to create a beautiful, functional, and safe society.
Thus, when a person gets injured from a design, the person liable has to be carefully considered. It could be the state, the maintenance company, or even private individuals.
However, it becomes essential to define environmental design in the context of community planning as every construction, building, bush, pathway, and road which are physically accessible to people in a community.
What Are The Environmental Designs That Can Cause Accidents?
Suppose a hazardous condition existed on the land. In that case, the property owner may be held liable for the accident if they knew about it or reasonably should have known about it and took no action to remedy it.
Environmental factors can be hazardous situations that lead to or cause accidents. However, better environmental planning and design could prevent many accidents.
Whenever accidents occur caused by environmental design, legal animation can be used to portray what would have happened differently if the design in question had been adequately stationed.
Here are some of the environmental designs that can cause accidents:
- Visual and spatial distractions
Patterns and colors play important roles in the appearance of every structure. This is why certain visual and spatial designs must be chosen with adequate care.
Some visual and spatial distractions include improper floor and step covering colors and patterns, inappropriate designs, and designs that camouflage shapes.
In addition, especially hazardous are the designs that camouflage changes in elevation, such as steps and platforms, and make it visually challenging to identify whether there are hurdles and objects in the walkway.
The absence of visual cues warning of certain dangers can also be very dangerous to people unaware of the design beforehand.
- Physical obstacles
Not all design defects have to do with impressions and appearances. We also have physical obstacles that can make it difficult to see what lies ahead.
These obstacles can be very dangerous, especially when two vehicles come the same way and cannot see the other because of the hurdle obstructing their views.
Some physical obstacles include skyscrapers, tall buildings, flowers and bushes, poorly located electrical cords, furniture, trees, plants, and signposts.
- Poor design standards
For every structure, there is a certain standard of safety that must be met. This is why attention must be paid to even the smallest details to avoid the harm that could have been prevented.
To ensure that design standards are met, the architect must pay attention to every dimension, shape, and size. Therefore, design standards must be followed in the design of floors and their slip resistance, land and stair dimensions, stair lengths, railings, fences, guardrails, and handrails.
However, if these are not adequately designed, there is the possibility of accidents. Legal animation can portray the design defect that caused an accident.
- Poor lighting
Lighting is an integral part of environmental design. Just the right amount of lighting can create a safe environment; Too little or too much can cause unbearable loss.
Accidents in areas with insufficient lighting are more likely to occur since it may be challenging to see what is in front of you. These mishaps can occur anywhere and leave those affected with long-term harm.
Accidents caused by poorly lighted places most frequently involve slip and fall incidents. The wrong illumination might make it harder to identify possible dangers, which could cause accidents.
These incidents most frequently occur either at work or in a public setting. These accidents are frequently the result of negligence by the property owner, who fails to maintain a secure environment.
Legal Animation In A Case Of Accident Caused By Environmental Designs
Accidents caused by environmental design defects can cause many harms, sometimes even fatal. Legal animation can surely be used in cases involving accidents to portray the events that transpired and how that event could have been prevented if the design had been safe and adequate.
Regardless of who would be sued in a case involving design defects of the environment or the kind of accident that occurred, it is possible to recover damages enough to cover for the emotional and physical harm on the victim’s part.
For instance, in the case of Keetch v. Kroger Co., the plaintiff was injured in the defendant’s store while buying a loaf of bread. Due to a slick spot on the floor, she slipped and fell. She was able to sue the defendants for negligence and premises liability.
Similarly, a case of an accident caused by lighting inadequacy can also cause an action to be brought to court, just like in the case of County of Cameron v. Black.
In a case like these, legal animation can be used to portray the defect or the potential danger in the environment and how it could have been prevented.
Conclusion
Legal animation is a very important tool in the courtroom today. With a good litigation animation company, it would be easy to secure a win and get adequate compensation for the harm caused.
