Benefits of Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Slips and trips

What causes slips and trips

Slip and trip accidents can happen for a number of reasons, but all too frequently we jump to conclusions about why they happen rather than really looking for the true cause or, we decide that it is just one of those things and do nothing.

The following should help you to understand what causes a slip or trip and give you some ideas on what you can do to stop accidents from happening again. What you may find is that there are a number of options open to you that are quite straightforward and relatively easy to implement.

The diagram below is the slip and trip potential model. The bubbles highlight the main factors that can play a part in contributing to a slip or trip accident. One or more may play a part in any situation or accident. Click on each bubble for more information

Flooring

• The floor in a workplace must be suitable for the type of work activity that will be taking place on it.
• Where a floor can't be kept dry, people should be able to walk on the floor without fear of a slip despite any contamination that may be on it. So it should have sufficient roughness. 
• The floor must be cleaned correctly to ensure that it does not become slippery or keeps its slip resistance properties (if a non slip floor)
• The floor must be fitted correctly
  • to ensure that there are no trip hazards
  • to ensure that non slip coatings are correctly applied
• The floor must be maintained in good order to ensure that there are no trip hazards e.g. holes, uneven surfaces, curled up carpet edges
• Ramps, raised platforms and other changes of level should be avoided, if they can’t they must be highlighted

Stairs should have:

• high visibility, non slip, square nosings on the step edges
• a suitable handrail
• steps of equal height
• steps of equal width

Contamination

Most floors only become slippery once they become contaminated. Prevent contamination and you reduce or even eliminate the slip risk.

Contamination can be classed as anything that ends up on a floor e.g. rainwater, oil, grease, cardboard, product wrapping, dust etc. the list is endless. It can be a by-product of a work process or be due to adverse weather conditions. If product ends up on the floor it is costing the company money.

First think about whether you can eliminate the problem, e.g.

• Fit effective canopies to external entranceways to stop rainwater from entering a building · Fix leaking machines
• Change the system of work

If not, can the contamination be controlled e.g.: -

• drip trays for leaks
• lids on cups and containers
• good sized mats at building entrances to dry feet

If you are relying on the floor to be good enough to cope with the contamination and still be non-slip you need to remember that the more viscous (the thicker) the contamination the rougher a floor needs to be in order for slips not to happen.