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What causes slips, trips and falls?

According to the latest government accident statistics for 2005/06, the retail industry reported 13,000 work related accidents.

More than 2000 of these accidents were major injuries such as fractures.

In 2006/7, almost 11 000 workers suffered serious injury as a result of a slip or trip. A fair percentage of these injuries were avoidable.

But what can employers do to reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls?

These types of accidents can happen for a number of reasons, and the key to reducing the injury rate is to identify the true cause of accidents.

Employers have a duty to protect their employees whilst at work, so it is in their interests to do all they can to reduce accidents at work that can leave them open to compensation claims.

The following should help you to understand what causes a slip or trip, and give you some ideas on what you can do to prevent accidents. Some of the solutions are straightforward and easy to implement.

Many factors can play a part in causing a slip trip or fall, and one or more may be involved in any work accident, including:

• Flooring
• People
• Cleaning
• Contamination
• Obstacles
• Environment
• Footwear

In all areas there are simple solutions and procedures that can be implemented to reduce the risk of accidents.

Take, for example, flooring. In order to reduce the risk of accidents:

• The floor in a workplace must be suitable for the type of work activity that will be taking place on it.
• Where a floor can’t be kept dry, it must have sufficient roughness so that people can walk on it without fear of a slip despite any contamination.
• The floor must be cleaned correctly so it keeps its slip resistance properties (if a non slip floor). Non slip coatings must be correctly applied.
• The floor must be fitted correctly and maintained in good order to ensure that there are no trip hazards such as holes, uneven surfaces, or upturned carpet edges for example.
• Ramps, raised platforms and other changes of level should be avoided. If changes of level are necessary, they must be highlighted.

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