As winter weather ushers in bitter cold, ice and snow, don’t overlook the fact that ice and snow can cause an increase in slip-/trip-/fall-related injuries to employees, volunteers and guests.
Slip and fall hazards often occur at entrances, on exterior sidewalks and in stairways and parking lots. It’s important for camps and conference centers to implement an aggressive maintenance program to promptly remove ice and snow from these areas and routinely monitor surface conditions.
Claim history can predict potential future losses
Church Mutual’s history for camps and conference centers reveals that slip/trip/fall injures are the leading cause of workers' compensation and bodily injury claims. Developing solutions to help reduce slip/trip/fall hazards is key when it comes to preventing injuries.
Closely monitoring changing surface conditions of sidewalks and parking lots is an important safety practice. Even a small amount of snow or ice accumulation on a walking surface can quickly turn good surface conditions into potentially treacherous ones.
Prevention strategies
Monitor and log winter maintenance strategies
Conduct daily walk-through inspections of your facility to identify slip and falls hazards. Hazards should be photographed, documented and corrected. Keep snow and ice maintenance logs listing the person responsible for correcting the hazard along with a targeted completion date. Logged entries should chronologically list what actions were taken, when they were completed and by whom.
Maintenance logs can help in the defense of a claim to show that reasonable steps were taken to plow, shovel, sand or salt walkways and parking lots.
Keep logs for at least one year in the event an alleged injury is claimed several months after the reported date of injury.
Plan ahead
Take steps now to reduce the risk of slip-/trip-/fall-related injuries with an organized maintenance plan that includes maintenance logs.