Injury Prevention Week – Collisions | Oakwood Solicitors Ltd

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APIL’s injury prevention week is focusing on e-scooters this year. We’ve all seen them (and encountered them, no doubt) and it is clear they are a swift way to move within a city without the need for additional vehicles on the road.

However, if in the hands of riders who lack care, they are a clear danger.

The same can be said for the many vehicles in a workplace (forklift trucks for example) and a number of claims have come to me in my role as Paralegal over the years that involve collisions, either as a result of the operator’s actions, or because the traffic routes themselves are badly organised.

Injury Prevention Week

This article from sentrysm.co.uk sets out some ways to prevent such accidents occurring and it is worth considering each tip in detail:

Traffic routes

This does not always get enough consideration. The employee who sits in an office ‘planning’ a workplace environment does not always experience the many pressures, hindrances and obstacles that workers who operate the vehicles that use them encounter.

I have had claims for employees who had to cross unsafe traffic routes and were hit by speeding vehicles, failed to heed unclearly marked traffic routes, or who put themselves in danger by standing in a ‘blind spot’, where the vehicle operator cannot see them.

Keeping traffic routes open, with a clear viewing area where any obstacles or people can be quickly identified is imperative. Think back to your driving test – how important was it to identify hazards on the road? It is the same principle in a working environment.

Maintenance of the traffic routes can also be overlooked, as heavy vehicles can hugely impact the surfaces they travel on. Holes, ridges or anything that could unbalance a vehicle (or indeed cause a pedestrian to trip) is clearly an issue.

Speed

I mentioned speed briefly in the section above, but it cannot be understated. It seems obvious that a road vehicle speeding in a 20mph zone could cause an accident, consider then working environments where speed limits are much, much less.

Pressure of work can sometimes influence drivers to travel more quickly than they should and employers should carefully consider every aspect of an employee’s working day to ensure pressure points do not emerge.

Traffic management

Separation of pedestrians and vehicles seems obvious, but is not always an easy proposition. Claims due to lack of clear and obvious signage have crossed my desk on occasion, particularly when an employee is new and does not understand the layout of a building.

Pedestrians

Pedestrians have a duty of care to themselves, clearly. However drivers of vehicles should always bear in mind that a pedestrian is likely to come off worse in an accident. Safe organisation of traffic routes, with segregation of vehicles and pedestrians, has to be the safest way to ensure pedestrian safety.

You would not envisage a hikers’ footpath running alongside a busy motorway, similarly a workplace has to ensure that it has the space to accommodate vehicles within the buildings they occupy.

Signs and signals

Obvious and clear signage signals to operators and pedestrians alike where they should and should not go and while it might be tempting to rush across a traffic route, a cleverly placed sign may well make an employee think twice before putting themselves in danger.

Lighting

Ensuring clear lighting seems obvious, but maintaining lighting sometimes gets overlooked in a busy workplace. I could not see my files to work on, if the light in my office didn’t work and it should not be allowed for workers to be obscured, or traffic routes to become unclear, due to inadequate lighting. Employers have a duty, set out in law, to ensure workplaces are adequately lit.

Loading and unloading

Finally, when a journey is done (or about to begin) ensuring the vehicle is placed in a safe, out of the way, place seems an obvious step. This does not always happen, however. Employers need to plan out safe loading and unloading areas, free of traffic to ensure the safety of all workers.

In conclusion, this Injury Prevention Week, consider not just the hazards, such as e-scooters you may encounter on the day trip to a busy city. Think also of all other environments you encounter and consider how we can all be kept safe from unexpected vehicles.

Unsafe work practices or poorly designed traffic routes should be brought to the attention of management, so that quick solutions can be found and everyone can be kept safe.

Injury Prevention Week – Collisions