SLIPS, TRIPS & FALLS WHEN WAS THELAST TIME…?
Christian Harris, Founder of Slip Safety Services, and host of the Safety And Risk Success Podcast and the weekly Safety Roundtable, suggests that now is the right moment to be getting a slip test done.
When was the last time someone had a near miss slip in one of your buildings?
We won’t open the Heinrich Triangle debate here, but suffice it to say that if 300,000 people a year go to A&E after slipping and falling, there is a very high chance that your last slip near miss was within the last week. Do you know? How well do you feel like near misses are being tracked and reported? If a customer or team member feels themselves slipping but self-addresses (which happens A LOT), would they even bother telling you?
When was the last time someone slipped and injured themselves?
Most slips are minor. But in the US, there are nonetheless $2.52bn of insurance claims from slips or trips without a fall. Yes, even if someone doesn’t fall over, they can still hurt themselves enough to be off work and be in a position to make an insurance claim. Statistically, you probably have lots of these minor slips (which you might not even recognise as a slip since no one fell).
When was the last time someone slipped and fell, hurting themselves badly (like a broken bone)?
As context to that US number, the annual claims from slips and trips with a fall is $10.58bn. Here in the UK the annual value of slip claims is around £1.2bn - big money. Added to this, 90% of serious slips cause broken bones, which can be life altering. Tesco was fined £733,333 in early 2020 after a 90-year-old man slipped and broke his hip. At that age, your life is ruined by an injury like that. All from ‘just a slip’. These probably don’t happen that often, but you may have suffered at least one broken bone from a slip in the last year?
When was the last time someone was very severely hurt, even fatally, by a slip?
In 2015, I was called in by Co-Op to investigate a very sad incident where Stanley May slipped, banged his head and passed away as a result. Each year there are around a dozen amputations after slips and falls. This type of incident is often considered ‘paltry’, but there are not infrequent very serious outcomes indeed. Let’s hope this hasn’t happened to you. But, it could.
Maybe slips and falls merits another look?
So, when was the last time you reviewed your slip and fall risk assessment? And did you tune your CHIMES to do so?
If you’re reading this, you’ll have policies and procedures in place. But are they enough? For instance, are you being let down by building fabric issues that you’re unaware of? Trust me, if you’ve got a slippery floor in an area of a building that gets consistently wet or contaminated, all the spillage
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policies and safety culture initiatives in the world aren’t going to help.
What you need is a deep and robust analysis of your CHIMES – an acronym for the six reasons people slip (see diagram below):
To help, here’s a totally free self- assessment tool that will score you on all six CHIMES to show you where you’re doing really well and where you can further improve. Normally this highlights a couple of areas to go from good to great.
When was the last time you had a slip test? Was this recently enough to be of any practical use?
We were delighted to win the THS Award 2022 for our slip test service. This is the science of slip safety. Do a pendulum test, exactly how HSE does it and how the courts require it, and you get hugely valuable data.
• Either you have the proof that your floors are safe when wet, which will help you to sleep easy at night knowing you’re safe, and to defend insurance claims.
• Or, you highlight a problem that can be fixed before a bad slip happens.
But remember, a slip test needs to be current to carry any weight. A slip test that’s over 12 months old is not reflective of the current situation and won’t be of any practical use in court.
As a thank-you to THS readers for voting for us, we’re offering 25% off a slip test for the first 10x people to contact us on 0203 355 5018 and quote THS.
Overall, then: when was the last time you gave slips and falls the attention that it really deserves? Would you like some help to make the answer to that question now?
https://slipsafety.co.uk www.tomorrowshs.com
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