
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, December 29, 1994                   TAG: 9412290103
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

$100,000 SOUGHT IN SUIT FOR SLIP ON ICY SIDEWALK

A woman who slipped and fell on an icy sidewalk is accusing the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority of failing to follow a city ordinance requiring that snow and ice be removed promptly from sidewalks.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Roanoke Circuit Court, Edith Pryor is seeking $100,000 from the housing authority.

Pryor claims in the suit that she was injured Jan. 19 after an ice storm covered the sidewalks of Lansdowne Park Housing Project with ice and snow.

Pryor, who was visiting her daughter at Lansdowne, says in the lawsuit that she slipped and fell, injuring her knee, after trying to walk around an icy sidewalk.

A city ordinance requires home- and business owners to clear sidewalks in front of their property within three hours of a storm, or by 9 a.m. the next day.

According to the lawsuit, two days had passed, and snow and ice from the storm still was on the sidewalk. The lawsuit further states that the sidewalk on which Pryor was injured was a ``common area'' of the housing project.

Violators of the city ordinance can be fined $250 for each six hours that snow, ice or sleet is allowed to remain on the sidewalk. Although there were hundreds - if not thousands - of violators during last year's ice storms, city officials did not enforce the ordinance, saying sub-zero temperatures following some of the storms made clearing sidewalks unrealistic.

by CNB