Fall Prevention and Protection

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Fall Statistics
Fall Prevention

FALL STATISTICS

The National Safety Council has indicated for several years that, excluding motor vehicle related accidents, the major cause of accidental deaths and serious injuries in the workplace, in residential environments, and in public settings in the United States is fall type accidents. Therefore, the prevention of falls should be a major concern to the designers, owners and/or administrators of any building, facility, or surface area used as a walking surface by individuals associated with these areas.

Commercial establishments. The general literature well recognizes that falls of persons in commercial establishments occur more frequently and have more serious results, on the whole, than any other type of accident.

Workplace falls. It has been documented for decades that falls are a major source of injury in the workplace. "Falls cause more lost time [necessitating absence from work] than any other class of compensational occupational accidents [and are] somewhat more severe than the average compensated injury." (Accident Facts, National Safety Council, 1937) "Falls are one of the chief sources of occupational injury. Data [indicates]...that for all types of industry combined injuries,...falls are exceeded in number only by those from 'handling'." (Blake, Roland P., Industrial Safety, Prentice-Hall Inc., 1953) Falls cause 12.7 percent of all workplace fatalities, second only to motor vehicles at 35.6 percent; and falls cause 16.4 percent of all workplace disabling injuries, second only to overexertion (manual materials handling) at 28.2 percent (Accident Facts, National Safety Council, 1988).

LEVEL SURFACE FALL PREVENTION

A practical approach to the prevention of walking surface falls dictates consideration of (1) the physical design characteristics of the walking surface and its support features, (2) general fixed user characteristics, (3) characteristics of common shoe sole and heel materials, (4) anticipated environmental conditions, and (5) cleaning, inspection and maintenance methods. In theprevention of falls, while each of these items should be taken into account, only items (1) and (5)are generally subject to practical control, with item (1) being subject to the most effective control.

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