What you can do to avoid Trip or Slip at Work

Not many people are aware that a single slip from a staircase or any elevated platform high enough can fracture a skull. Those who have experienced slipping and falling from a certain height can suffer head and even brain injuries that will require months of expensive rehabilitation and treatment.

In order to avoid slipping or falling from elevated places, make sure that you walk slowly and that you take your time. You should never rush, especially if you are wearing heels, and you should be extra mindful of all the obstructions you see that you think can get in your way.

Aside from head and brain injuries, a trip or slip at work can lead to torn ligaments. Ligaments are the fibrous tissues that hold bones together. They can get ripped if forced to their breaking point. Normally they are tough to break, but in the case of slips and trips at work, particularly on hard and uneven surfaces such as icy roads or concrete floors, they can be torn apart and cause permanent retirement.

In order to avoid this kind of injury, make sure you are wearing protective clothing when working on areas that are slippery and hard. Also, be observant for signs of wet spots so you can look for alternate routes.

There are more injuries associated with a trip or slip at work. For example, you can also break your back, your tendons, your pelvis, or your teeth. Nevertheless, the general principles remain the same: slips and trips are no trivial matters, and the best way to guard against them is to be careful all the time.

How to Avoid Slips and Trips

 

                                                 photo credit: www.hse.gov.uk/slips/

Slips and trips are dangerous but avoidable. With these suggestions, you can increase your chances of steering clear of the injuries they cause.

1.    Understand that slips and trips can cause serious injuries. The first step in preventing accidents is to always keep in mind the serious pain and suffering they can entail. This is true especially for those who are advanced in age. Given the right conditions, it is not impossible for a simple slip to break a neck or for a trip to break a back. Consistently being cognizant that slips and trips are not trivial accidents will help one a lot in not getting involved in them.

2.    Provide high-quality equipment. Is your workplace lighted well? Are you wearing proper protective equipment, such as specialized boots, at work? Does your office have a mat for those entering your premises? Does your employer provide the appropriate signs that warn people of wet spots? Has your boss barred doors to rooms full of obstructions? Raising and answering questions such as these will ensure that you and your co-workers will not slip or trip.

3.    Enforce and encourage good housekeeping. Finally, maintaining a safe workplace is possible only if everybody makes safety their business. Offices will be safe only if all employees take it upon themselves to clean their own spills, remove all obstructions from their workstations, and consistently warn others if they are about to slip or trip. Ensuring that the workplace has good housekeeping will not only increase the safety of the workers, but of all visitors as well. Furthermore, for visitors a clean office can suggest a spotless business reputation.

Work Accident Claims and the People Who Need Them

After suffering from a work-related accident, people do not immediately compute how much compensation they can demand from their employers through work accident claims. Their initial thoughts will most likely be about non-pecuniary things, such as the status of their health and their lives. That is because it is human nature to shun discord and confrontation when peace and harmony are realistic options.

Nevertheless, accidents do occur, no matter how much we prepare for them. After people get injured in an accident, things change. Ultimately, their lives change. Many are disabled from working. Some are greeted by pity, if not superciliousness. Others are secluded and branded as “different.” They are insulted sometimes because of their injuries. As if because they are injured, they are, therefore, weak.

These are the reasons why victims of foreseeable work-related accidents have to demand work accident claims from their employers. They need to receive monetary compensation to alleviate the suffering and distress that their injury has caused them. They have to find a way to gain the earnings they could have had if they had not been injured. Furthermore, they want the compensation because they have no choice but to buy medicine or new equipment for their injuries, such as crutches and wheelchair ramps.

The error lies with those who misconstrue demanding for work accident claims as a manifestation of ruthless vindictiveness or rapacity. People who demand work accident claims almost often are people who are fighting in the face of enormous physical handicaps just to give themselves the chance to continue living their lives.

These people do not need discrimination. Instead, what they really need is everyone’s support.

First, they need professional guidance. They need expert doctors, health officers, lawyers, and solicitors to guide them in their recovery and in their path to justice.

Second, they need compassion. They are already suffering because of their injuries. The last thing they need to see is an indifferent countenance.

Finally, they need respect. They are all too liable to mistreatment and jokes. But with other people’s support and a successful work accident claim, they can turn the tables around and make their abusers the laughingstocks.

These are the things that they really need—and the things that we would do well to give them.

The law is designed to help human beings interact with one other humanely. By helping others make successful work accident claims and deterring employers from disregarding their duties to every worker’s safety, we can ensure that humane treatment is exactly what the Law will provide and what all law-abiding people can expect from it.