SLIPS AND FALLS

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SLIPS AND FALLS
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Slips and Falls

• Slips resulting in falls often result in
  injuries
• Strained muscles or a twisted back when attempt
  to regain balance
• Broken bones or fractures
  Hands, arms, legs, hips etc.
• Concussion, coma or death.
• The older you are the slower you recover from a
  fall.

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Slips and Falls
A school dinner lady slipped on custard spilt on
the wooden parquet floor just as the floor was
being cleaned. She broke her leg and died later
from a blood clot. Ref HSE 2003 In the
catering industry Slips account for 86of the
total of the slips and trip injuries. In 90
of the cases, the floor is wet.
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Alison Hockaday
Slips and Falls

• Alison was an occupational therapy assistant at
  Winterton Hospital in South West Durham.
• In Nov 1986 she twisted her knee after falling on
  wet leaves outside the hospital.
• The claim was settled in her favour in 1997,
  11 years later.
• In March 1990, she slipped again, on a wet vinyl
  floor in the hospital, fracturing her ankle.
• She worked for two years before being retired
  on health grounds.
• She underwent many operations, her foot being
  amputated after the 31st operation.
• In 1997, after the 32nd operation, her leg was
  amputated below the knee.
• The Durham health authority finally settled the
  600,000 claim for compensation after 13 years of
  legal wrangling.
• Legal costs have been estimated at 10m after
  going to the House of Lords.
• Before the accident she swam, jogged and
  represented her county at netball.
• She now sits in a wheelchair and has an
  artificial leg.
• She will never work as a nurse again

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Slips and Falls

• Floor Condition, roughness, slipperiness
• Contamination Single, multilple or continuous
  events
• Footwear Male/female, sole material, heel
  size/height
• Pedestrian factors Distraction, disability,
  crowding, age/health, pushing/pulling,
  carrying.
• Cleaning Regime, frequency, chemicals/dilution,
  floor dried after cleaning, equipment
• Environment Glare, colour, surface condition,
  slopes etc.

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How to assess the slipperiness of a floor
Slips and Falls

• Measure surface roughness
• Measure slip resistance

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How do you measure surface roughness?
Slips and Falls

• Drag a record needle across a surface.
• Connect the needle to a meter
• Take a reading in microns.
• 1.3 microns is smooth
• 25 microns and above is rough and very good.
• Below 12.5 microns is dangerous when floor is
  wet!

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What instrument is used?
Slips and Falls
Surtronic Duo The Duo splits into two parts.
The measuring head is placed on the floor and
measurement to be made via a remote control.
Ten readings should be taken The results can
then be fed into the HSE software and provide a
quantifiable risk assessment. Rz Surface
roughness
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Slips and Falls
The surface roughness is measured at the
positions shown above to Ensure that differences
caused by grain, directionality etc are captured.
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What surface roughness is OK?
Slips and Falls
Below 10 microns Smooth surface High risk 10
to 20 microns Moderate risk 20 microns or
above Rough surface Low risk Below 12.5
microns is dangerous when floor is wet!
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Taylors Law
Slips and Falls

• See your face in it
• Feel youre ae on it.

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Typical surface roughness
Slips and Falls
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Slips and Trips

• Table of minimum roughness for typical workplace
  contaminants
• Minimum roughness Contaminant
• 20 µm Clean water, coffee, soft drinks
• 45 µm Soap solution, milk
• 60 µm Cooking stock
• 70 µm Motor oil, olive oil
• above 70 µm Gear oil, margarine

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Slips and Falls
How do you measure slip resistance? Use the
pendulum coefficient of friction tester
It was originally designed to simulate the action
of a swinging foot and to measure the skid
resistance of roads.

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Slips and Falls
It has a rubber foot that just touches the
floor. The higher the swing, the lower slip
resistance. The lower the swing the higher the
slip resistance and the more grippy the floor.

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Slips and Falls
It has a rubber foot that just touches the
floor. The higher the swing, the lower slip
resistance. The lower the swing the higher the
slip resistance. Over 0.25Rz is good.

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Surface slip resistance
Pendulum Value Slip Risk 0 0.24 High 0.25
0.35 Moderate 0.36 0.64 Low 0.65
Extremely low
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Surface slip resistance
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Combining Surface roughness and slip resistance
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Typical Supermarket
Slips and Falls

• 10m paid out in claims annually
• 25,000 slips every year
• 100 result in stays in hospital
• 80 of shop floor incidents are slips

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Slips and Falls

• The supermarket took action at the store
  entrance.
• Improve the drying of customers footwear as they
  entered the store.
• 2) Identify when water was being walked onto the
  store floor.
• 3) Respond to and remove any walk in water.

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Slips and Falls
A typical cleaning station to allow a rapid
response to spillages.
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16 Year Old Employee Flash Fries Arm

• 16 year old slipped on water leaking from an
  ice-making machine. Put out her hand to break her
  fall. Unfortunately her hand went into the deep
  fat fryer containing oil at a temperature of
  360F
• Severe burns to her left hand and forearm.

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• Pedestrian slipped over an unattended pool of
  water that had been left by the scrubber dryer.
  The pedestrian suffered head injuries and spent
  time recovering in hospital.
• The soapy water was left unattended.
• The floor surface was typical of that found in
  many shopping centrepolished terrazzo tile

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FAST FOOD company fined 60,000 Restaurant
workers scarred for life by boiling oil.
Cook slipped in the kitchen, knocking over a deep
fat fryer as he tried to break his fall. Covered
in 35 litres of boiling oil 15 per cent burns to
his chest, arms, buttocks, thighs and ankles. He
struggled to escape the oil, but kept slipping
back to the floor. As he was about to lose
consciousness a trainee manager came to his aid.
She was hit by the burning oil and suffered
horrific scalding as frantic workmates tried in
vain to ease their agony. In a desperate bid to
stop her flesh from burning, a staff member threw
soft drinks over her leg.
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Slips and Falls

• Slip Assessment Tool (SAT)
• HSE have written a PC based package that allows a
  slip risk assessment to be used by non-experts
• This gives a slip-risk assessment of the floor.
• A hand held meter is used to measure the
  micro-roughness of the floor.
• Further information is fed into the SAT, cleaning
  regime, floor type, condition of the floor
  (cleanliness and history), type of footwear,
  pedestrian factors etc.
• It will help decide upon the slip risk.
• The pendulum will be needed to assess just the
  floor.

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Slips and Falls

• Slips and falls are a major source of injury,
  misery and cost and are seldom taken seriously.
• Falls happen because of a combination of factors
• The design and condition of the walking surface
• Cleaning and maintenance procedures
• Lighting
• Weather
• The persons activity, fitness and eyesight.
• Footwear
• Sex

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Slips and Falls

• Statistics show that more woman slip and fall
  than men.
• Women
• Generally wear smaller and narrower shoes than
  men, reducing the sole surface to grip the floor.
• They tend to wear shoes with more of a heel,
  perhaps adding an imbalance in some carrying
  situations.
• They also tend to have more shoes than men.
• Men
• Are usually more familiar with the footing they
  receive from their shoes as they wear the same
  pair more frequently.

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Slips and Falls
Walking is an enormously complex activity.
You can walk safely on slippery surfaces
if you know its slippy. Accidents happen
when people slip on a floor that they assume
is dry. Walking safely depends on- Style
of footwear Sole material Footwear condition
Suitability
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Slips and Trips

• SUMMARY
• See your face in it
• Feel youre ae on it.