World Day for Safety & Health at Work

April 28th 2016 is World Day for Safety and Health at Work; in light of this we have been remembering of some the most colossal slips and trips ever to grace accident books worldwide. Below are 7 famously embarrassing/expensive tumbles from around the world.
1. Runway crash

In 1993 supermodel Naomi Campbell tottered down the catwalk at the Vivenne Westwood show in Paris in purple nine inch heels, and famously came crashing down to earth. As she sat there stunned for a moment, with world’s press looking on she began laughing, and uninjured helped herself up. She subsequently appeared in chocolate and insurance ads off the back of the fall. The infamous and aptly named ‘Super Elevated Gillie’ shoes have since been on display at the Bowes Museum in London and around the world as part of a fashion exhibition.

2. Art gallery gaffe

In 2015 a twelve year old boy inexplicably tripped while (slowly) walking near a 17th century oil painting at the Huashan 1914 Creative Park gallery in Taiwan. The stumble caused him to fall, drink in hand, into the painting as he tried to regain his balance. To his horror his hand had gone straight through the Paolo Porpora still life, ‘Flowers’ valued at £950,000. Luckily the restoration costs have been covered by insurance, however the boy’s stumble will forever be memorialised on YouTube.

3. Virtuoso fall

German born classical violinist and former child prodigy David Garrett took an immense tumble following a concert at the Barbican in 2008. While falling down the stairs is never a picnic, his fall was extra painful as he came crashing down on his priceless 230 year old Stradivarius, leaving him with a £60,000 repair bill.

4. Wardrobe malfunction

What is it with celebrities? They just can’t seem to stay upright and Jennifer Lawrence is no exception. When the Hunger Games actress trotted up to receive her best actress award at the 2013 Oscars, she tripped up the stairs as her heel got caught in her oversized dress. She has since made it a yearly event by tripping over on the red carpet at the Oscars 2014 and at the premier for Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 in Madrid in 2015. Perhaps she needs rethink her wardrobe to avoid future fumbles.

5. Bony elbows

In 2010 a clumsy unnamed visitor to the New York Metropolitan Museum reportedly lost her balance near a Picasso painting. Falling elbow first she tore a 6 inch gash through the painting. The damage was repaired and didn’t stop ‘The Actor’ from being sold for $155m three years later, a record price.

6. Dangerous shoelaces

In yet another art gallery related incident in 2006, an unruly shoelace caused a visitor to trip into some 300 year old vases at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK. The £100,000 vases from the Chinese Qing dynasty were smashed by Nick Flynn, then 42, from Fowlmere, Cambridgeshire. The Fitzwilliam have since restored the vases after ‘many months’ of hard work piecing them back together, they even did a web feature on the process: http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/pharos/sections/conserving_art/vases/pots_3.html

7. Ambitious Acrobat

During America’s Got Talent season 2 in 2007 acrobat Ivan the ‘Urban Action Figure’ had flipped his way to a second audition. In an attempt to outdo his initial audition he was supposed to begin his performance by jumping over a set of chairs. However, in a hard to watch moment he tripped and crashed through the chairs and seemed to go stiff as he rolled over his head. For an awkward moment no one seemed to know whether it was part of the act or not, once it was realised that he wasn’t moving he quickly received medical attention and did recover, but was not in time to audition again that season.