Action urged on danger pavement in Dorchester (From Dorset Echo)

Action urged on danger pavement in Dorchester

2:30pm Thursday 16th February 2012 in News By Catherine Bolado

A PENSIONER who was left with a split lip, bruising and missing a tooth after falling in Dorchester is urging Dorset County Council to do something about the problem.

Corinne Newman, 80, had been visiting the county town from Yeovil for the weekly market and was walking back to see her daughter Debbie when the incident happened.

She said she tripped on a jutting out paving slab that had been pushed up by a tree root.

She said: “I tripped and just went falling – smack.”

She added: “It wasn’t icy or anything.”

Mrs Newman fell hard and bit through her bottom lip, hit her nose and gashed her forehead.

The impact knocked out a tooth and damaged several others but she won’t know the full extent of the damage until the swelling starts to reduce.

Mrs Newman was warned that she may need hundreds of pounds-worth of surgery to sort out her teeth.

She said: “I was quite nervous to come back, but I love Dorchester.

“It shook my confidence a bit.”

Luckily a paramedic was passing and called an ambulance, another female pedestrian went to find Mrs Newman’s daughter to tell her what had happened.

Mrs Newman said she would like to see the pavement looked at so that no one else is injured and had already spoken to the county council.

She said: “I’d like to see the pavement repaired. I was told it’s been like this for ages.”

Her daughter Debbie, 55, said she was worried that someone else would fall.

She said: “Many people stopped and said that it’s a terrible bit of pavement.

“We want some attention brought to it. It could happen again.”

Mrs Newman and her daughter would like to thank passers-by and Dorset County Hospital staff for their help and the female shopper who went to find Debbie Newman.

Dorset County Council highways manager Mike Westwood said any problems with pavements would be quickly repaired.

He said: “We regularly inspect the condition of our pavements, in the case of Weymouth Avenue, every month, and repair any defects we find.

“If a paving slab is sticking out more than 2cm, we will take action to rectify that. Tree root damage can take place overnight and cannot always be detected immediately.

“But once we have been notified of a particular problem, we will send someone out to take a look and make repairs as necessary. We wish Mrs Newman a speedy recovery and hope her injuries are not serious.”