Tips to Reduce the Risk of Slip and Fall Injuries at Your Business
- Posted on: Sep 27 2018
Having a customer file a slip and fall injury case can do more than cost you money, it can damage your reputation. This is especially true if the victim makes a big deal out of the case. You may find yourself losing customers in addition to dealing with all of the costs that come with court. If you’re concerned about slip and fall cases, here are a few things you can do to reduce the risk that someone will be injured at your business.
Keep Halls and Other Areas Clean
The more obstacles someone has to walk around, the more likely they’re to trip. Keep hallways, walkways, and other areas customers regularly walk through as clear as you can. If you do have to put anything in these areas, make sure they’re up against the wall. If necessary, place brightly colored signs on the objects to alert customers.
Also make sure you don’t have any cords or cables snaking across the halls or other areas where someone might trip over them. If you do have to run a cable through one of these areas, make certain it’s taped down. If possible, run the cable up the wall and across the ceiling instead.
Have Proper Lighting
If a customer can’t see an obstacle, uneven surface, crack, or other potential hazard, they can’t avoid it. It’s important to make certain all areas of your business are properly illuminated, including the exterior and the parking lot. This not only helps reduce slip and fall injuries, it can also help reduce the risks of your employees getting injured and filing a worker’s comp case.
Routinely Check for Problems
Make it a point to routinely check for cracks, holes, and other issues in the sidewalk, parking lot, exterior steps, and other areas that could be damaged. Ideally, your employees will notice these issues and bring them to your attention, especially if there are any dangerous areas inside the store. Just to be safe, however, you should include doing a survey of the floors, stairways, and other areas once a month.
Clean Up and Fix Problems as Soon as Possible
Clean up any spills as soon as you can, and if you can’t, mark off the area with cones and make certain that people know to avoid it. This same goes for problems—fix them as soon as you can, and mark them as hazardous in the meantime.
Dealing with a slip and fall injury or want to know more about what can constitute a slip and fall? Contact Dr. Jeff Mollins today.
Posted in: Blog, Slip and Fall Accidents, Uncategorized
