5 steps to avoid slips, trips and falls in a fleet yard

More than 42,000 Canadian workers are annually injured in falls, and 67% of those are linked to slips and trips on the same level.

As troubling as those statistics from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety appear, gains are being realized. This year the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia saw 19 such injuries as of mid-June, compared to 107 in 2018. But even there, slips, trips and falls are second only to motor vehicle accidents when it comes to workplace injuries.

Despite the trucking industry’s ‘tremendous’ progress shown by a nearly 40% decrease in claim volumes, along with a 23% drop in loss-time injuries, preventing such accidents remains a priority, said Dennita Fitzpatrick, the compensation board’s vice-president of prevention and return to work.

“I disagree that accidents like slips, trips and falls just happen – and every one of those is a completely preventable injury. And the notion of injury prevention is moving from knowing to caring.”