Slip and fall accidents have been known to cause serious injuries, often resulting in complicated lawsuits, financial implications, and bad press for building operators at times. Fortunately, a few simple preventive measures can help you minimize your risk as a building operator and curtail these mishaps to a large extent.
Analyze the potential causes of slip and fall accidents:
- Choice of floors and flooring material:
“According to Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), floors and flooring materials contribute directly to more than 2 million fall injuries every year.”- National Floor Safety Institute.
Common examples include carpet tears, slippery floors, debris on the floor, and broken tiles. - Poor floor cleaning and maintenance: Improper housekeeping and inconsistent floor maintenance schedules increase the possibility of a slip and fall mishap. If not attended in a timely manner, spilled liquid, dirt, and debris are high risk causal factors.
- Weather conditions like snowfall and rain increase the chances of slipping due to accumulated water on interior floor surfaces.
- Other hazardous conditions such as poor lighting, broken stairs, loose railings, water leakage, unnecessary clutter and absence of “warning” signage.
Take preventative measures – install entrance floor mats:
Installing entrance floor mats at exterior entry points and critical areas goes a long way in preventing debris and moisture from being carried inside commercial spaces. Matting also provides a slip-resistant surface as one walks in, reducing the possibility of a slip and fall at the entrance. Entrance mats can be used both in the interiors as well as the exteriors of the premises, such as vestibules, covered walkways, and other areas. Safety, durability, required level of maintenance, and ease of cleaning are primary considerations when you decide to invest in a floor mat to reduce the chance of slip and fall mishaps.
Keep your mats doing their job!
Once you have chosen and install the right entrance matting for your premises’ needs, is your commercial space foolproof against slip and fall accidents? Unfortunately, the answer is no. The planning and implementation of a regular cleaning and maintenance schedule for your entrance matting is absolutely essential. See our previous blog post for why. Not only do we provide you with high quality floors and matting, we also supply care and maintenance instructions that tell you exactly how to maintain it for optimum safety and longevity.
Safety above All
At Source Floor, we genuinely care about your safety. While you can’t control weather conditions like rain and snow, you can definitely take effective countermeasures by choosing appropriate flooring and using suitable mats at the right places to minimize the risk of slip and fall accidents.
