An elderly woman, who was hit on the head by a falling pineapple while shopping in her local supermarket store, is seeking compensation for her injuries.
76-year-old Mary Raimo was shopping in her local Tesco in the Lochee area of Dundee, in July 2008, when the head accident happened. She was knocked to the floor and suffered concussion when a pineapple became dislodged from a stack on a shelf and hit her on the back of her head.
The pensioner claims that the pineapple was badly stacked and became dislodged by another customer. Mrs Raimo said: “I was in the reduced section for the fruit, looking at some on the second shelf. Another lady was looking at the pineapples on the top shelf. The next thing I knew – clunk – I got hit on the back of the head. I dropped my basket and staggered to the floor.”
Mrs Raimo was taken to hospital where she was kept in overnight for observation as she had suffered from concussion. She also hurt her neck and shoulders in the fall and still suffers with pain in those areas.
Her lawyer Alasdair Wannan said: “She is hoping for compensation on the basis that Tesco negligently stacked the pineapples. She says she is still getting headaches and neck pains and if that is the case we would be looking for several thousand pounds compensation.”
The Tesco store in which the accident happened has since closed but a spokeswoman for the company said that the matter has been brought to their attention and is being dealt with by their legal team.
She said: “Customer safety is very important to us and we are looking into what happened, our best wishes are with Mary Raimo for a speedy recovery. As this matter is in the hands of our legal team, we’re unable to comment further.”