Top Tips for Preventing Slips and Falls From a New York Construction Accident Lawyer

As a team of New York construction accident lawyers, we’ve seen hundreds of accidents over the years involving slips and falls. The sad truth is that most of these accidents would be completely avoidable if only employers and employees took a little more care to stop these from happening. To help you out, we’re here to share our top tips for preventing slips and falls in the future. Of course, if you do experience a trip, slip or fall on a construction site, contact our team today. We’ll be happy to work with you to find out who was at fault and make sure you receive the compensation you deserve.

Preventing Slips in the Workplace

The majority of slips a New York construction accident lawyer deals with were a result of wet surfaces. This could be due to the rain or snow in the winter in New York, but it may also be due to wearing poor footwear for this type of surface. Make sure everyone in your workplace is wearing safety boots at all times, which can stop slips from taking place. A slip-resistant sole will stop you from ending up on the ground and potentially hurting your back or neck when you fall. When you are walking on a wet surface, always take your time. Even during a busy day on your site, you need to ensure you are fully in control of where you are going at all times.

Wet surfaces are often unavoidable in New York. However, as a New York construction accident lawyer, we recommend taking it very slowly during this time of the year. Take slow steps with your feet slightly pointed out. Keep your weight on the balls of your feet, and you’ll find that you are much more stable on any type of slippery surface. Make sure there’s a policy in place for dealing with spillages. These are other common causes of slips but can easily be avoided when they are cleaned up, and a sign is put over them.

Stopping Falls on Construction Sites

Falls are a terrifying thing for anyone to have or witness at work. You’ll find that these stay with the victims for the rest of their life, and colleagues may struggle with PTSD following this type of situation. Same as with slips, you need to make sure you are using non-slip shoes so that you don’t fall down stairs or off a slippery surface when working at height. Make sure that all passageways which are high up are fully clear, so there’s less chance of someone tripping over and then falling as they couldn’t maintain their balance.

Where you have team members working at heights, a New York construction accident lawyer will always recommend you put markings at the edge of each surface. This makes it far more visible where someone will fall and will reduce the number of falls in your workplace. Handrails are a helpful addition, and you always need to have stairs in place to go between uneven platforms. The more precautions you can take, the less chance you’ll have a team member ending up falling from a height in the future.

Trips in the Workplace

While falls and slips are the two main areas a New York construction accident lawyer will deal with on a daily basis, we also see a lot of hazards that result in disastrous trips at work. Your site needs to be as clear and free from hazards as possible, so make sure you are doing daily walks around the site to check how everything looks. Another issue we are noticing more and more now is the huge number of accidents and trips involving mobile phones. Try to put a policy in place which stops people from using these devices when walking around any site. So many times, people are engrossed in their phones that they don’t see what’s in front of them and end up on the floor instead.

The time of the day when someone is working will also impact the probability of an accident and needing a New York construction accident lawyer. We recommend only working in daylight hours, but when this isn’t possible, make sure there is enough lighting in place. Create clear paths for your team to follow so that they know where they are going at all times in their shift. Also, put signs in place which will help to guide someone who is new to the site.