ADA Compliance Expert Discusses Unsafe Hotel Bathroom

This case involves an individual who was injured in a hotel bathroom in Maine due to an allegedly defective shower seat. The individual, an elderly female patron of the hotel who had specifically requested a handicap accessible hotel room for her stay, had just checked into the hotel when she attempted to use the shower. When the woman attempted to sit on the folding shower seat that was installed in her room the seat immediately collapsed, causing the woman to fall and strike her head on the bathtub’s tap. The seat in question had been installed by a third-party contractor a few months before the date of the incident in question, and the part of the seat that failed was identified as a component used to adjust the height of the seat.

Question(s) For Expert Witness

1. Please briefly describe your experience installing handicapped shower chairs.

Expert Witness Response E-006332

I am an Architect licensed in 33 US States, and am specialized in hotel design. We have designed more than 100 hotels and resorts. I have successfully worked on more than 100 ADA-related matters and from this experience. I have specified many hotel tubs and showers that are compliant with Federal ADA guidelines and Chapters 11 (accessibility) and 29 (plumbing) sections of the International Building Code and related local accessibility and plumbing codes. You may be aware that this chain of hotels demands that developers and their design team members design their hotels according to their 300 + page guidelines and, moreover, review and approve the design team's Record Contract Documents. What the facts of this summary appear to show is that the bathroom of the hotel room came equipped with a defectively installed shower seat that also failed catastrophically. Therefore, there is a reasoned argument that the manufacturer, installation firm, and hotel are likely responsible for the sort of situation that is the subject of this matter.