Follow Through: Protection from Falls

Slips, trips, and falls are frequent and severe types of claims seen across various business classes in property and casualty insurance. These incidents range from minor slips to catastrophic falls causing permanent injuries and even death. Sometimes, seemingly trivial stumbles transform into costly, drawn-out lawsuits charging your business with negligence or other shortfalls. Employees, customers, and visitors alike all fall prey to these types of occurrences, and the onus is on your organization to do your best to keep people safe while under your charge. This responsibility should not be taken lightly. Regardless of the claimant status (employee, customer, or other), slip, trip, and fall instances can have lasting, detrimental consequences. In addition to the moral repercussions of knowing that you have contributed to pain, injury, disfigurement, and possibly death, the financial penalties of fall incidents have the potential to cause you to close your doors forever.

In terms of protecting your own people, a significant amount of your time should be focused on preventing falls from elevated heights. Organizations that utilize ladders and/or scaffolding and that conduct work from elevated surfaces like roofs and ceilings must take proactive measures to mitigate falls from these areas. Such falls were the most frequent and severe type of incidents seen among environmental remediation and restoration contractors on a recent five-year examination of worker’s compensation claims. More specifically, this examination discovered that of all falls from elevated surfaces, approximately 55% were from atop, ascending, or descending a ladder. Another 17% of the falls were from scaffolding and 19% of incidents occurred when a worker fell through a roof or ceiling. In total, falls from heights represented 12% of the number of claims and accounted for nearly 22% of the total cost of all claims.

When it comes to reducing the number of incidents and mitigating the potential injuries and costs, the numbers speak for themselves. Ladders are perilous— so much so that the need for adequate training on usage and positioning cannot be understated. Proper utilization incudes ensuring that the rungs and steps are free of slipping hazards, not exceeding manufacturer weight limits, refraining from moving the ladders while in use, not standing above the recommended top rung, not carrying loads that could cause the climber to lose balance, facing the ladder while climbing, and utilizing three points of contact while climbing up and down the ladder. Proper positioning includes placing ladders on stable surfaces, not placing ladders on slippery surfaces, not positioning ladders in high traffic areas, and securing ladders that are in such high traffic areas. Ladders should also be inspected for material defects prior to use. Ladders deemed unsafe due to such defects should be tagged as unsafe and no longer used on jobsites (OSHA, 2003).

Similar training and precautions are needed for scaffolding— specifically, utilizing qualified people to assemble scaffolds, equipping scaffolding with guardrails, assembling scaffolding with proper decking and the platforms should remain clear or debris, and constructing scaffolding to support at least four times the intended weight load. Just like ladders, scaffolding must be subject to scrutiny and inspection before each shift.

In addition to protecting employees from falls from heights, you should be wary of your customers as they traverse the grounds in your organization. A recent five-year examination of claims associated with the outdoor adventure, recreation, and hospitality industry helps paint the picture. Although harsh environments often plague these types of businesses with frequent and expensive property claims, they also accumulate significant expenses in relation to liability claims regarding slips, trips, and falls. Although slips, trips, and falls accounted for just over 5% of the number of claims in this examination, these claims resulted in 15% of the total indemnity over the same period. A further examination of these falls shows that many of them are preventable with some common-sense risk management measures. For instance, inadequate surface maintenance (unsecure deck boards, uneven parking lots, dilapidated stairs, etc.) was determined to be the cause of 15% of the fall incidents and nearly 22% of the cost of these falls. Similarly, tripping over objects, poor lighting, and lack of stair railings caused just over 20% of falls accounting for nearly 12% of the total cost. Additionally, ice and snow were the primary cause of 7% of all falls.

Based on these numbers, it is no difficult task to determine what can be done to mitigate these issues. Indeed, many of the falls can be prevented by maintaining decks, porches, parking lots, stairs, and sidewalks. Several of incidents reviewed were the result of individuals stepping in holes, falling on poorly constructed or maintained stair or deck boards, or traversing uneven ground. Similarly, general housekeeping and removing clutter and debris from areas where people can stumble over it is an easy fix. Installation of adequate lighting in heavily traveled areas is another cheap remedy. Constructing stair railings, even when not required by code, has the potential to save you from costly falls in the future. Finally, clearing walkways of ice and snow is a practice that your organization should adopt as part of its risk management practices. So, although you cannot predict and stop clumsy walkers, the combination of surface maintenance, trips over objects, poor lighting, lack of stair railing, and ice/snow fall data tells us that approximately 42% of falls and nearly 35% of the associated costs have the potential to be mitigated or prevented entirely by instituting these low-cost measures.

The previously mentioned statistics were generated following five-year claim examinations from two of McNeil & Co.’s niche insurance programs– BISA and AdvenSure. Although such reviews are time-consuming and costly, it is our hope that the information garnered from such reviews is beneficial to our clients. In pursuit of our goal to partner with you to make your businesses safer and more profitable, we hope to continue to bring valuable insight into industry topics and trends that you can utilize in your daily operations.

References

OSHA. (2003). Stairways and ladders a guide to OSHA rules.