Don’t be fooled by its ordinary appearance; Ladders are a serious hazard that cause more than a thousand deaths a year. Obviously, the danger posed by the stairs is that of falling. However, the damage can vary widely based on a number of factors, from the direction you’re heading to the height you were at when you fell.
Falls are one of the main reasons people have to go to the hospital, and stairs are the number one place people fall. However, with a few precautions, you can mitigate your chances of falling or being seriously injured if you fall.
Who is most at risk?
Unsurprisingly, the people most at risk for a serious fall on stairs are the elderly and young children. However, secondary groups such as pregnant women, the immunosuppressed, people with poor vision or balance, and hemophiliacs should also take extra care on stairs.
Simple steps to reduce risk
There are many small risk-reducing steps you can take in your own home and sometimes on other stairs that can reduce your risk of a fall.
- Install guardrails: Guardrails not only allow you to have something to catch in case you start to fall, but they also give you a guideline to follow if visibility is low.
- Light the stairs well: By lighting the stairs well, you reduce the chance of someone tripping because they can’t see well. Keep night lights on near steps for night use.
- Never leave anything on the stairs – teach children to keep toys off the steps and make sure not to put their own mess on the steps to ensure a clear path.
- If you can, avoid carrying dangerously large or heavy objects up or down stairs. It’s all too easy to trip, fall, and not be able to recover if you’re concentrating on an unwieldy box or piece of furniture. If you must carry difficult objects up and down stairs, ask a colleague to help you, even if it seems a little silly.
Construction and maintenance of stairs
Don’t assume stairs are safe just because they are accessible or because you haven’t fallen yet. Before using the stairs, check to see if they are worn or smooth in any way: this can make them slippery and difficult to walk on safely, and stairs that are slightly worn are less obvious but just as dangerous as heavily worn stairs. A difference in stair depth requires much more concentration and should not be taken lightly. Do the stairs meet building codes? Building codes are a minimum level of safety standards, so hopefully the ladders you encounter will exceed these codes. Avoid wet or icy stairs if possible, and keep one hand on the handrail if it’s not possible to avoid such dangerous stairs entirely.
Be save.