Health and safety professionals are acutely aware that slips, trips and falls count for over half of workplace injuries and, in the treacherous conditions of a harsh winter, while the temperatures plummet, the risk soars. If a fall on ice or snow occurs, can your organisation rest assured that it has done everything possible to meet its duty of care?
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states that: ‘It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees’. Part of that requirement involves providing a healthy and safe working environment but, during winter months when frost, snow and ice appear on and around business premises, sites, and properties, often at very short notice, this presents an added challenge.
But what constitutes a reasonable effort for protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of all employees, visitors, members of the public, and contractors who visit your organisation? Get it wrong, and the results can be disastrous. ‘Getting it right’ can avoid lengthy litigation cases, damage to reputation and huge financial loss.
Earlier this year, Janet L was awarded £8,500 for a major sprain when she slipped on icy snow outside her local supermarket. Her accident occurred in January, during a week when the weather had been unpredictable, in an area of the North East known for its tendency to experience particularly bad weather conditions during the winter. On the area where she slipped, there was had a patch of pre-existing ice which was covered by fresher snow, and neither had been salted, despite there having been regular snowfall for approximately two hours prior to the accident.
A recent claim against Newcastle University was found in favour of the defendant, when AB slipped on ice on the university premises causing an injury to her knee. A dedicated university team is responsible for snow clearance and gritting, which starts around 5.30am to treat the main routes before most staff and students arrive on site. The team has their own area of responsibility and complete reports to show the timing of any action.
Records showed that the path where the claimant fell had been cleared of snow and treated with grit between 9.30am and 10.15am on the morning of her accident. Due to the early start, the grounds staff finished work at 2pm on that day but the university has other measures in place. No further gritting was carried out around the staff entrance, but nor had there been any complaints.
The claimant argued that this system was not adequate, that grounds staff should have been on hand to carry out gritting after further snowfall. The judge found that the systems were adequate and that the university had complied with its duty to do everything reasonably practicable to keep surfaces free of slipping hazards.
Creating a completely risk free workplace is almost impossible. In the case of the university, however, they had a well thought out policy and prioritised procedure for dealing with icy conditions, supported by comprehensive documents to show what had actually been done. We can’t know all the threats and when they’re going to hit, but the essential thing is for businesses to be prepared. A comprehensive winter risk policy, robust management system, and good risk assessment processes are key safety measures.
Some good practice tips for effectively managing winter risk are:
For many professionals especially those working in high risk industries, covering large workplace areas or areas where members of the public access, removing ice/snow is an almost impossible task. Moreover, it’s normally well down on the list of things to do. Indeed, to be perfectly frank, using examples of people have a fall and claiming compensation is a cheap way of highlighting the issues. Using a worse case scenario out of tens of millions of opportunities for a mishap is one of my pet hates. Indeed, never mind ice and snow, I have not yet found a way to stop… Read more »
I agree with the advice given by Nikki, I would add only one point and that is to take some photos of the area too. Make sure the photos are signed and dated as being a true reflection of the state of the area.
The degree of involvement with this particular hazard will be dictated by the nature of your undertaking. What is clear is that if you take the appropriate action and keep good records, you will have a good defence for when people do trip over their own feet.
I don’t do risk assessments either for people tripping over their own feet.
Another example of trying to eliminate all risk. I agree with Ray. I work in Africa in underground mining and we rarely have any ST&F incidents as people are aware of the uneven ground and take care. Away from mine sites, the roads, streets, pavements (where they exist) and pedestrian walking areas would be a nightmare in the UK where people seem unable to walk without falling over. Yet here, I have yet (in over 2 years) to see anyone fall over or down the open storm drains. Winter weather has existed for millennia and as children, we used to… Read more »