Thousands of Tripping Hazards Found on San Diego Sidewalks

San Diego has an estimated 5,000 miles of sidewalks. A recent sidewalk assessment has shown that there are thousands of tripping hazards in the city — at least 39,000 and counting; and the assessment doesn’t conclude until this winter.

Facing concerns over crumbling infrastructure, the San Diego City Council agreed to spend $1 million to commission 24 engineering interns, mostly from San Diego State, to assess the city’s sidewalks. Any sidewalk with a lip of at least a half an inch is considered to have a tripping hazard. So far, the interns have covered 3,100 miles of the city’s sidewalks.

John Helminski, San Diego’s deputy director of the Transportation and Storm Water Department, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he wasn’t surprised by the high incidence of sidewalk tripping hazards in the city, considering that many of the sidewalks have not been renovated or fixed since they were first installed some 75 years ago. Tree roots have caused about 10 percent of the tripping hazards on the city’s sidewalks.

Councilman Mark Kersey, chairman of the council’s infrastructure committee told a press conference, “We’ve heard anecdotally about kids walking to school on dirt paths or over busted-up sidewalks, and that’s just unacceptable.”

It has been estimated that San Diego would have to spend some $2 billion to fix its infrastructure woes, which includes sidewalk renovations, field maintenance, road repair and building upgrades.

The Jurewitz Law Group | Injury & Accident Lawyers in San Diego applauds the City of San Diego for assessing the trip hazards in the city, but at the same time is appalled by the city’s sheer neglect of those hazards over the years. If you or a loved has been injured after tripping on a sidewalk hazard, contact us online or call us at (888) 233-5020. You may be entitled to receive compensation for medical bills and other damages.

Ross Jurewitz

Ross Jurewitz is the founder and managing lawyer of the Jurewitz Law Group, a San Diego personal injury attorney law firm. These San Diego injury accident lawyers specialize in helping people seriously injured in a variety of accidents throughout San Diego County and California.

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