QLD Educator Awarded Nearly $200k After Tripping Over Lego Brick At Work In An ECEC Setting

An award of nearly $200,000 was given to a Queensland Educator who stumbled over a Lego brick and hurt her ankle. She tripped while dragging a section of the obstacle course from a shed and suffered an ankle injury that was later diagnosed as a disruption of the anterior talofibular ligament.

In August 2017, Chomba Anne Kabwe Nkamba was constructing an obstacle course at the Queensland Childcare Service-run facility in Ipswich, QLD when an accident occurred.

According to court documents, she tripped while dragging a section of the obstacle course from a shed.

She said she couldn't see the plastic brick, which had unknowingly fallen into her path after being knocked off a shelf.

Nkamba's ankle injury was later determined to be an anterior talofibular ligament rupture.

She has experienced ongoing discomfort as a result, and the Queensland District Court was informed.

In his ruling, Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren SC stated that she also had an "adjustment illness with depressed mood from which she currently has residual symptoms."

Horneman-Wren stated that generations of parents had warned their children to put down their construction blocks before someone steps on them.

That frequent and straightforward warning recognises that stepping on a brick on the ground could be dangerous.

In her case, Nkamba claimed that her employer's negligence led to her injuries, which left her unable to work and lost her money.

Nkamba knocked the block to the ground herself and was aware of its presence, according to the firm, which said she failed to "take due care for her personal safety."

However, Horneman-Wren rejected those arguments.

“It is not merely a question of did she need to look where she was placing her foot. It was a question of did she need to look where she was placing her foot because she may step on an object,” he said.

“That reasoning also dispenses with the further allegations that she failed to keep a lookout or otherwise failed to take reasonable care for her own safety.

“Mrs Nkamba is not guilty of contributory negligence. The defendant is solely liable for her injury.”

He awarded Nkamba a total of $197,013.98, with legal costs to be decided at a later date.

Reference: 
Queensland Childcare Worker Awarded Almost $200k For Tripping On Block Of Lego, 7 NEWS Australia, 23 December 2022