Crown Mats Identifies High Risk Areas for Slip-and-Fall Accidents

Crown Mats and Matting has released its second segment in a series of Tribology Training classes, detailing how to handle high risk areas for slip-and-fall accidents.

Tribology is the study of the interaction between sliding surfaces.  Those who analyze slip and fall accidents use the knowledge of tribology to examine the amount of friction between shoe bottoms and the floor surface.

According to JoAnne Boston, business development manager for Crown Mats, this class focuses on how facility managers can help prevent slip and fall accidents by knowing where they are most likely to occur.

“This helps identify areas of a facility that may need special attention to help prevent an accident and would include everything from stairs and ramps to outdoor walkways,” she explains.

Boston says studies now indicate these areas are where a slip-and-fall accident is most likely to occur:

• Any floor surfaces that are wet or oily (both indoors and outdoors)
• Sloping surfaces, especially sloping down
• Work areas where pushing, pulling, carrying, or lifting tasks are performed
• Any area of a facility where people must temporarily walk faster than usual
• Where there are frequent walkway changes
• Unfamiliar or hard to see locations or walkways
• Areas where carpeting is torn or floor tiles are broken or loose
• Accident locations that have not been secured or cleaned up
  
  

“Familiarity with the high risk areas not only helps managers assess the likelihood of a slip-and-fall accident and where it might occur,” adds Boston, “it helps them determine what steps they can take to help prevent it.”