Stand Down for Fall Safety

This week is the National Safety Stand-Down in the United States, which raises fall hazard awareness across the country in an effort to stop fall fatalities and injuries.

The National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction on May 3-7 is led by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to reduce injuries and fatalities from falls.

Each year, OSHA publishes a top 10 list of the most frequently cited violations it has recorded. The list for 2020 is largely unchanged from 2019, suggesting that little progress has been made addressing the most common workplace incidents, four of which are related to fall protection: fall protection (general requirements), ladders, scaffolding and fall protection (training requirements). OSHA logged nearly 12,000 violations for these four standards.

Fatalities caused by falls from elevation continue to be a leading cause of death for construction employees, accounting for 401 of the 1,061 construction fatalities … Read more...

The First Day of Fall (Safety)

On average, slips, trips and falls cause nearly 700 fatalities per year. Furthermore, twenty percent of the 30,000 forklift accidents that occur each year involve a pedestrian being struck by the vehicle. 

The first day of fall is a great reminder that preventing pedestrian accidents in the workplace has long been challenging but not impossible. Working alongside a wide range of material handling equipment, traveling across ill-prepared work surfaces and dealing with elements like weather, congestion and poor illumination is, in many cases, part of work for many. Add a distraction such as a cell phone and we have a perfect storm of substandard conditions met by an increase of undesired behaviors.  

Both slips and trips result from an unintended or unexpected change in the contact between the feet and the ground. Slipping occurs when the friction between the foot or shoe sole and the floor surface provides insufficient resistance … Read more...