The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is either very bad at building and managing staircases, or is just a convenient entity to blame when people suffer accidents on those staircases. A lawsuit filed last week says that Myung Oh fell down the museum's concrete steps and injured his neck in 2013. The accident rendered him a quadriplegic, the suit says, living in a nursing home and requiring around-the-clock care.
This is the second time in the past year that the Perot-affiliated museum has been sued over a staircase fall.
A few years ago, Ana Morfin was about to enter another Perot Museum entity, the Museum of Nature and Science in Fair Park. Instead, she slipped and fell on her way in, blaming "water on the steps." Her complaint, filed last August, doesn't speculate on where that water came from, but blames the Perot Museum for failing to inspect the staircase and make sure it was safe. Her case is still open and scheduled for a jury trial later this year.
And then who can forget Luis Martos-Uribe, not a slip-and-fall victim, but the man whose finger was severed when he participated in the museum's "Jump" exhibit. He promised to sue last year, though records show nothing filed under his name yet.
Oh's recent lawsuit, meanwhile, argues that his fall could have been prevented if the entrance to the Perot Museum's main campus was normal, like other staircases.
Sure, the current entrance might look cool, but Oh's attorney argues in court filings that it's hard to walk up because its design deviates "from standard practice." He writes that it's especially dangerous for people who aren't holding onto the stair railing. So, if you want be extra cautious during your museum visits, grab onto the rail when you go in and out of the museum, but keep your fingers in your pockets at all times when you're near the exhibits.
