Summertime means vacations aplenty for most Americans. This year, reports project that nearly 246.1 million Americans will travel by US airlines between June 1st and August 31st. That’s 2.61 million passengers per day. With so many people cramped up in multiple lines, luggage rolling about, travelers plugging in their phones across the carpet, it’s easy to see just how susceptible most travelers can be to some type of slip and fall accident.
Say, for instance, you’re traveling somewhere with your elderly mother. You reach your terminal when someone else’s luggage is dropped in front of her, causing her to slip, fall, and suffer fractures to her arm and leg.
Who’s responsible for that accident? If your mother is rushed to the hospital, who is supposed to help pay for her hospital bill? Who pays for her rehab and prescription medications?
Is it the negligent traveler who dropped the luggage? Is it the airport? What about the airline she’s flying, are they somehow liable for any of this? Is no one responsible for it and your mother is left to pay all of her own medical expenses?
Actually, there is an answer to this question and that is determined by an internationally enforced set of laws that help designate how liability for airport accidents and damaged cargo is assigned. In other words, there are international laws in place to help protect passengers in the event that an accident occurs.
What is the Montreal Convention?
Formulated in 1999, and enforced in the United States in 2003, the Montreal Convention is a comprehensive international treaty that addresses private international air law, specifically in areas that help assign liability to accidents or wrongful deaths that occur at an airport, during a flight and disembarking from a flight. Specifically, when it relates to injuries, the Montreal Convention specifically states in Chapter III, Article 17, Death and Injury of Passengers — Damage to Baggage:
The carrier is liable for damage sustained in case of death or bodily injury of a passenger upon condition only that the accident which caused the death or injury took place on board the aircraft or in the course of any of the operations of embarking or disembarking.
What Should I Do If I’m Injured While I’m at the Airport?
Speak to a personal injury attorney immediately. The sooner you act to speak to an experienced injury lawyer, the sooner you may be compensated for your injuries. A personal injury attorney will fight for the compensation you deserve.
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Call the Personal Injury Attorneys at Moore Law Firm Today!
If you have suffered an injury while traveling on an airplane or while at the airport, call the McAllen personal injury attorneys at Moore Law Firm today at 1-956-631-0745.
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