Obvious risk and liability for harm - are the recent decisions eroding personal responsibility?

In brief - Courts not attributing high level of common sense to plaintiffs

Three recent decisions in different states of Australia have highlighted the difficulties in establishing "obvious risk" defences for defendants, despite on the face of it, accidents involving the materialisation of what is at least arguably, on a common sense approach, an obvious risk.

NSW - Wet shoes cause plaintiff to slip on moving travelator

In simple terms, the NSW case Glad Cleaning v Alvarenga [2013] NSWCA 482 involved a Woolworths employee who was injured when she slipped on a downward moving travelator at a shopping centre. She had just walked through a wet area directly in front of the entrance to the travelator and the fall was a result of her wet shoes coming into contact with the moving sloped metal surface of the travelator.