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A number of people contact us because they have had a slip or trip at work, have received an injury and want to know what happens next or if they are eligible for compensation. The following outlines what happens when you are injured at work or similar and what the HSE and Local Authority inspectors can do?
The HSE and Local Authority Environmental Health Department are unable to assist you or advise you about making a personal injury claim; you will need specialist legal advice. The Citizens Advice Bureau may be able to help or you could go to a local solicitor.
The role of the HSE and Local Authority in the event of an accident is as follows: -
Depending on the severity of the accident or the amount of time you are off work, your employer may need to report the details to us or the Local Authority via the incident contact centre.
Depending on the severity of the accident the person responsible for premises in which you fell, or the person ultimately responsible for the work activity which caused you to fall, may need to report the details to us or the Local Authority via the incident contact centre.
All fatal accidents and a proportion of the most serious reported accidents are investigated by us or the Local Authority Environmental Health Department. Not all accidents are investigated and we cannot conduct personal investigations on your behalf. If an investigation is required to assist you with a personal claim it will fall to your legal representative to undertake.
Accident investigations are carried out in order to establish if health and safety laws have been followed or broken, and if any action needs to be taken in order to prevent any similar incidents from happening in the future. Actions might include, giving verbal advice, sending a letter of advice, serving an official notice or prosecuting.
Some of the information gathered during an investigation may be open to the public, to obtain it you will need to follow the procedures outlined by the Freedom of Information Act.
Slip and trip accidents increase during the Autumn and Winter season for a number of reasons: there is less daylight, leaves fall onto paths and become wet and slippery and cold weather spells cause ice and snow to build up on paths. There are effective actions that you can take to reduce the risk of a slip or trip. Regardless of the size of your site, always ensure that regularly used walkways are promptly tackled.
The following provide some good advice on how to address these issues.
Is there is enough lighting around your workplace for you and your workers to be able to see and avoid hazards that might be on the ground? The easiest way to find out is to ask your staff. Another way is to shadow your employees for a couple of days, walk the main internal and external routes that they use throughout their working day. It is important to do this both inside and outside of the workplace, as the effect of light changes during the day. If you can’t see hazards on the ground you will need to improve the lighting (e.g. new lights or changing the type of bulb).
Take care when installing new lighting to avoid a fall from height risk. A good maintenance system is also essential, as spent lights should be changed as soon as possible.
Fallen leaves that become wet or have started to decay can create slip risks in two ways, they hide any hazard that may be on the path or they themselves create a slip risk.
Put in place a procedure for removing leaves at regular intervals; you might even consider removing the offending bushes or trees altogether.
In dealing with rainwater:
To reduce the risk of slips on ice, frost or snow, you need to assess the risk and put in a system to manage it.
The most common method used to de-ice floors is gritting as it is relatively cheap, quick to apply and easy to spread. Rock salt (plain and treated) is the most commonly used ‘grit’. It is the substance used on public roads by the highways authority.
Salt can stop ice forming and cause existing ice or snow to melt. It is most effective when it is ground down, but this will take far longer on pedestrian areas than on roads.
No tests have been carried out on how much grit to use. As a guide, on roads a rate of approximately 10-15gms/m 2 for precautionary salting and 20-40gms/m2 during ice and snow conditions is recommended.
Gritting should be carried out when frost, ice or snow is forecast or when walkways are likely to be damp or wet and the floor temperatures are at, or below freezing. The best times are early in evening before the frost settles and/or early in the morning before employees arrive. Salt doesn’t work instantly; it needs sufficient time to dissolve into the moisture on the floor.
If you grit when it is raining heavily the salt will be washed away, causing a problem if the rain then turns to snow. Compacted snow, which turns to ice, is difficult to treat effectively with grit. Be aware that ‘dawn frost’ can occur on dry surfaces, when early morning dew forms and freezes on impact with the cold surface. It can be difficult to predict when or where this condition will occur.
Bags of rock salt can be purchased from most large Builders Merchants at an average cost of £4.00 for a 25kg bag.
A prison in the North of England had successfully tackled more routine slip and trip hazards in the prison grounds, but still had a problem with icy conditions. In response and by making good use of the ‘County Highway Weather line’ a new procedure has been put in place that involves, during cold snaps:
The areas gritted included car parks and pathways, both outside and inside the prison gates. This procedure has been successful and slip accidents have reduced since it was implemented.
See:
It is true that most slip injuries are on wet or contaminated (e.g. food, oil) floors. Far fewer slips happen on clean, dry floors – so this should be your first aim. When someone slips his or her foot slides on the film of contaminant instead of making firm contact with the floor itself. Don’t forget that dry contaminants, such as dust or plastic bags, can also cause people to slip and fall.
You should organise your business to ensure that people are not put at risk from slipping and tripping. Include the following:
There are also some practical things that are important to look at. They are set out in order in what we call the ‘hierarchy of controls’. Controls at the top of the list should be tried first. This is a summary of those controls –
More detail on controls can be found in HSE information sheets such as Slips and trips: Summary guidance for the food industry (FIS6) or Preventing slips and trips in kitchens and food service (CAIS6). These have been written for food businesses but the principles of the controls can be applied anywhere. You can find these sheets and more guidance on our information page.
Floors need to have enough grip for pedestrians to walk safely, but what does this mean? Grip is measured as ‘Coefficient of Friction’. Suppliers of floor coverings ought to be able to provide you with information on their products’ coefficients of friction. For safe pedestrian walking on the level this should be 0.36 or higher. These points are also important:
TIP – If you are putting down a new floor, try to find out about similar floors in use in real workplace situations. This can help you make the right choice. Ask your supplier to tell you where else that floor surface has been used.
Research has shown that floor surface roughness (measured in microns or millionths of a metre) gives a reliable indicator of floor slipperiness. The microscopic roughness of the surface is able to break through the film of water or contaminant on the floor so that there is direct foot-to-floor contact. The more viscous (thicker) the likely contaminant then the more floor roughness is needed to penetrate it. See Assessing the slip resistance of flooring for more information on floor roughness values and measurements.
This is not true. Research has shown that floors with good microroughness can be cleaned to the same standard as smooth floors and should not conflict with hygiene requirements. Several manufacturers produce floors specifically for hygiene sensitive situations (e.g. food preparation) that have sufficient microroughness to still have enough grip even with the floor contaminants likely to be found in those situations. Floors with greater roughness might need different cleaning methods or agents so be sure to consult your floor supplier or manufacturer to get advice on how to clean it properly.
Warning people that a floor is wet – and therefore dangerously slippery – have a limited effect. Warning signs will only remain effective if they are properly used. If warning signs are always visible on areas which are clearly not being cleaned or drying they will quickly lose any effectiveness. Methods of preventing access during cleaning or drying need to be effective, for example:
During the course of their work cleaners may be exposed to slip risks. Appropriate slip resistant footwear can help reduce the slip risk to cleaners themselves. Footwear provided as personal protective equipment must be provided free of charge to employees.
There are acid etch treatments which can be effective in improving the slip resistance of hard floors (such as tiles) in wet conditions however many of them use hydrofluoric acid and there are health risks associated with the application process. The life span of the treatments is generally extended by cleaning with a dilute version of the acid which may introduce ongoing health risks. The acid works by dissolving part of the floor surface to provide greater surface roughness, and so has an effect on both appearance and lifespan. Problems can occur if the application is poor, the slip resistance often doesn't actually change (usually given away by the lack of visual change) or where traffic level is high, the etched surface wears quickly and the surface returns to presenting a slip risk.
It is difficult to predict and control the behaviour of visitors such as customers. Often they may be less steady on their feet, be less aware of any hazards that may exist and might have a disability such as visual impairment. Look at the ‘hierarchy of controls’ above to see what you can do. Consider that in a sales environment or when finding their way in an unfamiliar place visitors’ attention will be distracted from where they are putting their feet. In these situations trip hazards like raised goods display plinths or items placed on the floor will put them at risk. No one believes that it is good business to injure their customers.
Footwear that is issued to try to control slip risks is classed as ‘Personal Protective Equipment’ (PPE). PPE should only be considered as a last resort, all efforts should be made to eliminate the root of the problem first. Sometimes, despite all other efforts, it is still necessary, to consider using footwear to further control slip risks. In this case making an informed choice of footwear is important. There is no universal standard for measuring the slip resistance performance of footwear. Footwear that performs well in one situation (e.g. wet conditions) might do no good at all in another environment (e.g. where there are food spillages). Two things can help you make the right choice. Find out what other businesses similar to yours are using (and does it work?). See if you can get the suppliers to let you trial some footwear that you are considering issuing to see if it works in your particular environment. The Health & Safety Laboratory has done studies on different types of footwear so it might be worth contacting them for advice.
Work is still being done on trying to properly understand the performance and properties of these ‘profiled’ floor surfaces but it is becoming clear that they often do not have the slip resistance qualities that people expect. Metal chequer plate is in widespread use such as on steps, gantries, vehicles and mobile work equipment. Experiences in practice indicate that metal profiles can be particularly slippery when wet. It is believed that the slipperiness of profiled metal surfaces is more closely linked to the surface microroughness of the top surface of the cleats (often very low microroughness) than any attributes of the cleat pattern, size and depth.
‘Yes’ is the short answer to this question. Keeping areas where people walk free from obstructions, debris and misplaced items and making sure that they are kept in good condition with no holes or unevenness undoubtedly reduces trip injuries. This does mean getting the co-operation of the workforce, staff need to be involved in setting good housekeeping standards for their working environment, it is difficult to achieve good housekeeping without workforce co-operation. Be sure that it is actually possible for staff to work to good housekeeping standards. Have enough space for items to be properly stored rather than placed on the floor, have walkways and thoroughfares clearly identified, have a system for damage reporting and repair and challenge bad housekeeping practice when it occurs. Making sure that any slopes or changes in level are clearly visible are also straightforward and sensible measures.
Entrance matting to remove rainwater from the feet of pedestrians entering buildings is generally a good idea. The matting needs to be big enough so that pedestrians place their feet on it several times before stepping off the other side onto a smooth floor. It should be as close to the entrance as possible so that smooth floor surfaces are not exposed for people to step on before they get to the mat. It also needs to be sited in the direction that people actually walk when they enter the building – do they walk straight ahead or turn to move towards the reception desk? Much entrance matting in place in buildings is actually designed to remove grit from shoes rather than dry them – is that what you have? Matting should be set into the floor so that it is level with the surrounding area, loose matting can become a trip hazard itself, it can also slip on the floor surface. Having a good canopy outside the entrance can have a real effect on reducing the amount of water that gets walked into building entrances on people’s feet. Entrance matting can become saturated during the course of the day, it then stops having any drying effect and might need to be replaced so take note if wet footprints are starting to appear on the floor beyond the matting.
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