Three Slip, Trip, And Fall Hazards To Avoid In A Business Setting

Law Blog

In any business setting, the safety of your employees is important. However, the safety of every person that walks through your door is just as crucial and must be properly attended. Of all of the accidents that can occur in a place of business, those related to slips, trips, and falls are often the most common. Unfortunately, customers will hold you liable in most cases if they are injured because they fell in your business. Personal injury cases can be costly to settle, cause your insurance rates to go up, and give your business a bad reputation within the community.

There are three basic slip, trip, and fall hazards to carefully avoid:

1. Material or Product Spills

You may not be able to eliminate spills from happening within the walls of your business, but what you can do is make sure that all employees are fully aware of how to handle spills. Make sure a spill is never left unattended, cleanup materials are always within reach, and all spills are promptly tended to according to the nature of what it is.

There are many personal injury cases that are a direct result of spills in a business because this is considered to be a negligence of customer safety on part of the business.

2. Cords

Extension cords can be a necessary part of product displays or other functions in a business, but they can also be a detrimental trip hazard. If you do have to rely on an extension cord, it should be kept up off of the floor and overhead, instead of in the direct path of customers. If running a cord overhead is not an option, run the cords around the perimeter of walls or shelving where feet will not tread.

3. Pallets

Many large scale stores rely on pallets to bring in new merchandise. You may have store employees bring pallets onto the sales floor to stock shelves. While this is okay, employees should know that an empty pallet should never be left unattended.

Once a pallet has reached a lower stacked level, it is no longer in a customer's line of site and can be a trip hazard. It may be a better solution to have pallets unloaded in the backroom and transported to the sales floor in carts to avoid this issue.

Making sure that your business is free from slip, trip, and fall hazards is one way that you can ensure that personal injury is not an issue that you have to face. Basically, anything that could become a danger to one of your customers could also become the root cause of a personal injury lawsuit. Take some time to learn about safe practices and personal injury to protect your company from such an event. Contact a personal injury attorney for more help if you have other questions.

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5 December 2014