Slip, Trip and Fall Hazards

     Slip, trips and falls are the most common customer and employee accidents in many retail and other businesses.  These can occur due to wet floors, icy sidewalks, frayed carpeting and uneven floor elevations.  In any case, they are costly to a business and to employee morale.  Smaller business may pay the price for such accidents in higher insurance premiums and costly court ordered damages to the injured.  Larger businesses with multiple units often times pass the cost of the accident onto the particular unit where the accident occurred and have a liability department pay out damages and costs to the injured.  Either way, accidents cut into the profitability of a company.  The conditions that cause the slips, trips and falls, most often times, can be identified and corrected or avoided to minimize such accidents.

     Having an accident team whose job it is to identify unsafe conditions is invaluable.  In a larger business this can be a team of employees who have the luxury of reporting unsafe conditions directly to a top manager or other designee, usually someone who has the power to get things fixed.  Some training and monthly meetings will go a long way. In a smaller business, this may be the manager or owner who takes a safety walk once a month to take an honest look at the physical condition of their business.  The important part is having someone paying attention to the work environment.  In either case, having a monthly "safety-walk" checklist will help to ensure that nothing is overlooked.  I have worked for several very large and well known corporations and there was a safety team in every one of them.

     Conditions and situations that are common in slips, trips and falls are:  wet floors, uneven floor elevations (including steps), icy sidewalks or parking lots, frayed, torn or wrinkled carpet, elevator thresholds that do not line up evenly with the floor, escalators with moving hand-rails that move at a different speed than the escalator steps, low shelving, obstacles or displays below knee level, door thresholds, unsafe or broken ladders or step stools, employees or customers who climb on shelves to reach items, differences in floor surfaces (walking from carpeting to tile) and in-floor outlets that are missing covers that have covers that do not close tightly.  There are many more but these are the most common and should be considered during a safety walk as well as during construction planning.

     Correcting these conditions and situations are pretty common sense and straight forward.  I have been successful in making low cost corrections by painting the edges of stairs or loading docks with a durable bright orange or yellow paint.  This is available at most hardware stores and is often referred to as "safety yellow" or "Chromium Yellow" paint.  Having elevators and escalators serviced once a year usually avoids any problems with them and having employees that are aware and who can react to wet floors and trip hazards usually minimize these as being tripping and slipping culprits.

     Falls often occur after a slip or a trip but also occur with unsafe practices.  These include employees or customers that are in a hurry, the improper use of ladders or step stools or the use of broken ladders or step stools and the lack of using these two items when they are required.  Broken ladders and step stools should be replaced; it is never advisable to try to make repairs to these items.  The inspection of ladders and step stools should be part of the monthly safety inspection.  Most importantly, talk about safety with your staff weekly if not daily.  Remember: "What gets talked about gets done".

For more on retail safety, please see my other postings under this blog.

Allan Biggins Consulting