Slip, Trips and Falls

Slips, Trips, & Falls are the most common type of employee injury at Longwood University with the majority occurring during the freeze-thaw cycle after a winter storm has deposited snow on our beautiful campus.

To help prevent these incidents, it is important to understand each danger.  Slips often result from wet and oily floors and loose rugs and mats. Common tripping hazards include clutter in hallways, poor lighting, open drawers and uneven surfaces.

To avoid slips trips and falls there are three main prevention methods.

Housekeeping:

Proper housekeeping is not just cleanliness. It includes keeping work areas neat and orderly, maintaining halls and floors free of slip and trip hazards, and removing of waste materials (e.g., paper, cardboard) and other fire hazards from work areas.

• Clean up spills as soon as they occur
• Mark spills with warning signs
• Mop or sweep up debris from floors
• Remove obstacles from walkways
• Secure mats and carpets with tape to maintain they remain flat
• Close cabinets or drawers when not in use
• Keep workplaces and walkways well lit
• Replace burned out light bulbs and faulty switches

Flooring:

Walking surfaces can be made safer by replacing unsafe floors, installing mats or adding abrasive strips.

Proper Footwear:

In workplaces with oily or wet floors, or where workers spend a lot of time outdoors, proper footwear is important to prevent slipping and tripping.  Because of the multiple hazardous conditions that exist. Here are some important features to look for when deciding what type of footwear to wear:

• Grip the ground firmly. Super-deep treads or patterns with a lot of voids can feel unstable.
• Have tunnels to channel water or oil away from the shoe. When you step in a liquid, it will choose the path of least resistance. If the tread has lots of channels or pathways to facilitate this, it will provide a safer step.
• Have circular grips that help prevent hydroplaning better than square or triangular-shaped grips

Slips and trips can result in a fall on the same walking surface level and may result in any number of injuries, including fractures, sprains, strains, contusions (bruises), concussions, cuts/abrasions/ punctures, etc. These injuries are the result of:

• The impact or force that your body receives,
• How you land, or the part of the body that receives the brunt of the fall,
• What you may strike on the way down, such as a handrail, or table top.
• What you land on—for example tools or uneven stairs,
• There actually is a “proper” way to fall, should you find yourself in such a predicament.
• This method attempts to control what part of the body receives the impact and helps to distribute the force.
• Tuck your chin in, turn your head to the side and throw an arm up.
• Twist or roll your body to the side.
• Keep your wrists, elbows, and knees bent.

Another type of fall hazard is when a person falls from an elevated position and lands on a lower level. Falls in this category can result in any of the injuries mentioned above, but can also include death. Common causes of falls from an elevation occur when:

• An elevated working surface that is more than 4 feet above the adjacent floor or ground level and is not properly guarded,
• There is a hole in the walking, working surface that is greater than 12 inches or more in it’s least dimension (with more than a 4-foot fall),
• A person is working from a ladder (more than 4 feet off of the ground)

To reduce the risk of Slips, Trips and Falls think about doing the following:

• Pay attention when walking and do not rush
• Walk with feet pointed slightly outward
• Make wide turns at corners
• Keep flooring in good condition
• Have a flashlight handy in case you enter a room with little or no lighting
• Ensure your views are not obstructed

For more information send an email to Longwood University’s Environmental Health and Safety at safety@longwood.edu