A 74-year-old woman has sued the Junta de Andalucia for 48,000 euros in compensation after she tripped over a protruding bolt-head on a temporary pedestrian path through the metro roadworks in Granada in 2010.

On the 25th of March that year the elderly woman was making her way home across the junction between Avenida de la Constitución and Avenida de los Andaluces when she went sprawling. Workers on the metro construction had opened a metal inspection lid in the pavement and had not bothered to screw it back down, leaving one bolt protruding.

The fall was witnessed by passers-by and a shopkeeper whose premises is just in front. The shopkeeper told the workers what had happened and asked them to screw it down properly, but for whatever reason this was not possible, so they just beat it down with a hammer.

At first the woman thought that she had done herself no damage so she didn’t go along to urgencias. The next day she was in considerable pain so she went along to the hospital but they couldn’t see anything wrong. Finally, the daughter took her to another hospital where they found that she had three cracked ribs and accumulated blood in her pleural cavity. After recovering from the injuries, which took some time, she then suffered from post traumatic stress and fear of going out.

The family made a reclamation against the Junta in February 2011, who rejected the claim, so they took the affair to court last July – a judicial decision is still pending.

(News: Metropolitan Granada, Granada, Andalucia)