Some people think our interest in tripping hazards is dumb, but it’s no joke when an elderly woman is sent crashing to the sidewalk.

We got a note last week from Leona Kershaw, a senior who was recently injured in an encounter with the sawed-off stub of a pedestrian safety post, also known as a bollard, on Bremner Blvd.

“My husband and I were walking on the south side of Bremner, heading to the Rogers Centre, when I tripped over this pipe protruding from the walkway,” said Kershaw in an email that included photos of the hazard.

“I fell to the ground. Many people rushed to help me, including two parking authority personnel. Everyone was very solicitous.

“I was shaken up, a little wobbly back on my feet, so I sat on a bench for a few minutes waiting for the shock to wear off. Eventually we made it back to the stadium.

“For a 75-year-old woman I was very fortunate. Nothing was broken, only bruised, a scraped knee and sore muscles. It could have been much worse.”

She went on to note that the remnants of several bollards that were removed are flush with the surrounding concrete, but the stubs of two others are still sticking out of the sidewalk.

“Why were these two left in the open, just waiting for someone to trip over, and potentially be seriously injured?”

We’ve always treated tripping hazards as priority, which sometimes draws laughter from people who think we should find something more important to write about.

In March, we got a note from Lloyd Leblanc, who had read one of our online columns about a utility cut that was a tripping hazard while on vacation in Mexico, and sent us a needling note about it.

“Come on Jack!” said Leblanc. “Have you travelled anywhere outside Toronto?

“We are currently in Mazatlan Mexico, and this is common and we all deal with it very well. Go to developing countries and this ‘flaw’ is not even thought about, let alone discussed.

“Certainly, there must be more pressing issues to write about. Oh well, we had a good laugh.”

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But things aren’t so funny when an elderly woman is sent smashing to the concrete in a high-traffic pedestrian area because of careless work by the city that fails to meet its own standards.

STATUS: We got a note from Tom Kalogiannis, the area road operations manager, who said a crew would be in the area Monday and see that the dangerous post stubs would be removed.