New Slip, Trip and Fall Program Encourages Hazard Hunters

Slips, trips and falls are an ongoing challenge for members, and this fall PDRMA will introduce a new PIPP program to address these areas at the Risk Management Institute (RMI) in November and roll it out in 2018. PDRMA’s Risk Management staff will identify specific agencies to participate in the Slip and Fall areas of the program, based on member exposure and loss history, and all members are invited to compete in the Hazard Hunter (Trip) portion of the program.

The Core 6 and Hazard Hunter programs both fall under the PIPP umbrella with the goal of injury prevention, but while Core 6 focuses on what you should do to avoid injuries or losses, Hazard Hunter concentrates on what you see.

“Our Hazard Hunter program is a new spin on a technique known as hazard recognition,” explains Jesse Kinsland, PDRMA Risk Management Consultant. “Many claims — for employees and patrons — could be prevented by spotting hazards and fixing them before they lead to an incident. Hazard Hunter will also help agencies expand their safety culture by making it fun to recognize potential problems while raising awareness of tripping hazards in the office, a maintenance garage, parking lot or wherever someone sees one.”

Since the best way to learn is through play, the Hazard Hunter program will debut as a contest among member agencies. Uneven concrete, turf depressions, a protruding rebar, exposed pipe or conduit, or broken sidewalks curbs or parking bumpers — it’s so easy just to walk past these tripping hazards,” says Kinsland. “But our Hazard Hunter contest wants to change that.“  

In March 2018, participating members will report tripping hazards and photo-document them in real time, with before and after proof that the agency addressed the hazard with warning signage, repairs or other correctives. Those agencies that participate will each receive $250. At the end of March, PDRMA will award a grand prize — a bragging-rights trophy — to the agency that has remedied the most significant hazard.

To kick start the program, PDRMA will distribute Hazard Hunter Kits at the 2017 RMI to the first 40 entrants and provide a list of kit contents for agencies to create their own.

Slip and Fall Solutions Applied to Specific Agencies

To address both the Slip and Fall portions of the program, PDRMA Risk Management staff will review both member exposures and losses to determine which agencies would most benefit from analysis and solutions for those specific areas.

PDRMA is enlisting help from two floor surfacing specialists to analyze and resolve slipping issues. Safe Space Ingenuity (SSI) conducts on-site testing of floor surfaces to measure slip resistance. After SSI generates a report on its findings and recommends action to reduce slip exposure, members can choose a variety of solutions, including working with Sure Step, Inc. Sure Step offers a chemical surfacing that creates an invisible slip resistant tread design on a variety of surfaces that lasts for more than a year.

Through a subsidy program of up to $500 annually, PDRMA will help those agencies with increased exposure and/or incidents of falls to consider alternatives to using ladders when performing work above ground level. Alternatives to A-frame ladders would include platform ladders, portable scaffold and mobile stairways to name just a few, each providing greater stability and less of a fall risk than a traditional A-frame ladder.