Does Your Business Meet OSHA, ADA and ASTM/NFSI Floor Slip Resistance Standards?
Here are the potential costs of not being in compliance…
Lawsuits can cost millions:
• In Rockford, IL., a jury awarded a man $1 million, after he slipped on a wet floor at the Steam Plant Restaurant and sustained multiple broken bones.
• The Supreme Court awarded a man’s wife $2 million after he slipped on a hospital floor, suffered a head injury and died.
• A New York City doorman who received $6 million from the NYC subway system, after he slipped and fell on subway steps, resulting in permanent and disabling injuries that prevented him from performing his duties as a doorman. The jury ruled that it was the responsibility of NYC subway to keep train steps safe and clean.
Fines can be costly as well:
• If can be determined by the Justice Department that the surface is in violation, when "feasible" measures could have been taken, a fine of up to $50,000 can be imposed for the first violation and $100,000 for each violation thereafter. These fines do not include punitive damages.
In either instance, the burden of proof is on the business, to prove the practiced "DUE DILIGENCE" when in keeping floors clean and safe. Slip Solutions products demonstrate DUE DILIGENCE, and provide you with documentation of before and after conditions.
Slips and Falls…
• Are the leading cause for visits to the ER (over 8 million), and the cause half of all accidental deaths in the homes each year.
• According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), floors and flooring materials contribute directly to more than 2 million fall injuries each year.
• 85% of worker’s compensation claims are attributed to employees slipping on slick floors (Industrial Safety & Occupational Health Markets 5th edition)
• Are the primary cause of lost work days, workers’ comp claims and workplace injury for workers 55 years and older.
• Twenty-two percent of slip/fall incidents resulted in more than 31 days away from work (US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2002).
• Compensation and medical costs associated with employee slip/fall accidents is approximately $70 billion annually (National Safety Council Injury Facts 2003 edition).
• Total injuries due to falls estimated at $13-14 million per year in U.S. Falls are the number one cause of accidental injury, resulting in 20.8 percent of all emergency room visits in 1995. (Motor vehicle accidents accounted for 11.9 percent of ER visits.)
• According to the American Trucking Association, slips and falls are the leading cause of compensable injury in the trucking industry.
Slip-and-falls and the nation’s elderly
• One of every three persons over the age of 65 will experience a fall
• More than 15,000 people over the age of 65 die annually as a result of a fall (doubled last 10 yrs).
• 1.8 million people over the age of 65 were treated in an emergency room as a result of a fall.
• For people aged 65-84 years, falls are the second leading cause of injury-related death; for those aged 85 years or older, falls are the leading cause of injury-related death.
• Falls account for 87% of all fractures among people over the age of 65 and are the second leading cause of spinal cord and brain injury.
• Half of all elderly adults (over the age of 65) hospitalized for hip fractures cannot return home or live independently after the fracture.
• Falls represent 40% of all nursing home admissions.
• More than 60% of nursing homes residents will fall each year.
• According to The National Institute on Aging, every year 30% of people over the age of 65 will sustain a fall.
• People over the age of 85 are 10-15 times more likely to experience a hip fracture than are people aged 60-65 years.
Source: National Floor Safety Institute
Lawsuits can cost millions:
• In Rockford, IL., a jury awarded a man $1 million, after he slipped on a wet floor at the Steam Plant Restaurant and sustained multiple broken bones.
• The Supreme Court awarded a man’s wife $2 million after he slipped on a hospital floor, suffered a head injury and died.
• A New York City doorman who received $6 million from the NYC subway system, after he slipped and fell on subway steps, resulting in permanent and disabling injuries that prevented him from performing his duties as a doorman. The jury ruled that it was the responsibility of NYC subway to keep train steps safe and clean.
Fines can be costly as well:
• If can be determined by the Justice Department that the surface is in violation, when "feasible" measures could have been taken, a fine of up to $50,000 can be imposed for the first violation and $100,000 for each violation thereafter. These fines do not include punitive damages.
In either instance, the burden of proof is on the business, to prove the practiced "DUE DILIGENCE" when in keeping floors clean and safe. Slip Solutions products demonstrate DUE DILIGENCE, and provide you with documentation of before and after conditions.
Slips and Falls…
• Are the leading cause for visits to the ER (over 8 million), and the cause half of all accidental deaths in the homes each year.
• According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), floors and flooring materials contribute directly to more than 2 million fall injuries each year.
• 85% of worker’s compensation claims are attributed to employees slipping on slick floors (Industrial Safety & Occupational Health Markets 5th edition)
• Are the primary cause of lost work days, workers’ comp claims and workplace injury for workers 55 years and older.
• Twenty-two percent of slip/fall incidents resulted in more than 31 days away from work (US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2002).
• Compensation and medical costs associated with employee slip/fall accidents is approximately $70 billion annually (National Safety Council Injury Facts 2003 edition).
• Total injuries due to falls estimated at $13-14 million per year in U.S. Falls are the number one cause of accidental injury, resulting in 20.8 percent of all emergency room visits in 1995. (Motor vehicle accidents accounted for 11.9 percent of ER visits.)
• According to the American Trucking Association, slips and falls are the leading cause of compensable injury in the trucking industry.
Slip-and-falls and the nation’s elderly
• One of every three persons over the age of 65 will experience a fall
• More than 15,000 people over the age of 65 die annually as a result of a fall (doubled last 10 yrs).
• 1.8 million people over the age of 65 were treated in an emergency room as a result of a fall.
• For people aged 65-84 years, falls are the second leading cause of injury-related death; for those aged 85 years or older, falls are the leading cause of injury-related death.
• Falls account for 87% of all fractures among people over the age of 65 and are the second leading cause of spinal cord and brain injury.
• Half of all elderly adults (over the age of 65) hospitalized for hip fractures cannot return home or live independently after the fracture.
• Falls represent 40% of all nursing home admissions.
• More than 60% of nursing homes residents will fall each year.
• According to The National Institute on Aging, every year 30% of people over the age of 65 will sustain a fall.
• People over the age of 85 are 10-15 times more likely to experience a hip fracture than are people aged 60-65 years.
Source: National Floor Safety Institute