Many More Industries and Accident Claims

We hope all your blog readers have enjoyed the posts about working on construction sites and hopefully we’ve highlighted some potential dangers and hazards that might have led to a personal injury claim or compensation claim.

There are many other industries where accidents can happen and we will be writing about these in the next few weeks. Is there a particular industry that you would like us to write about? Maybe you work in an industry and want to highlight the issues about health and safety and any potential or actual accident claim?

We would love to hear from you, so post your comments below.

Office Fires and Preventing Accident Claim

Office working environments differ from construction sites and in the majority of cases employees should exit the building as soon as possible, rather than trying to fight the fire or extinguish it. As part of inductions, employees are shown where to go in the event of a fire and the nearest fire escape route.

Often office floors can have lots of different office partitions making it even more boxed off and people all trying to get through the main doors. If done correctly, staff can still exit the building without causing an accident that might result in an accident claim.

Often offices are connected through to the local fire station. As soon as the alarm is activated, the fire service is also alerted. In training exercises they are pre-warned to prevent an unnecessary call out

Construction Site Fire Escape Routes and Planning

When a fire takes hold the first plan is always to escape and get out as soon as possible, using the quickest route possible and of course the safest route. This will reduce injury which might lead to a personal injury claim,
The main ways to ensure there is a safe means of escape will differ from industry to industry as an office building will have different processes to a construction site. The processes for a building site or construction site include the following;

Checking routes and making sure they are available, kept available and of course unobstructed.
If there are any alternative routes that can be utilised, these should be highlighted as routes to the ground level. In some circumstances, not every route will accessible or available, depending on where the fire may have started. 

Protection from fire spreading is something which is important and can be implemented with fire doors or other forms of permanent fire separation. This will contain any fire to a specific area rather than it spreading across the whole building or floor.

Fire assembly points must be known and safe distance away. One a small construction site this is usually a pavement. Every employee must know these points in advance and the quickest way there.
Finally signs must be obvious incase there are people who might not be aware of the escape routes. These need to be clearly shown.

If employees, contractors or visitors know the fire escape plans and procedures it will help reduce panic and confusion in the event of a fire. Also, it will reduce any injury or subsequent compensation claims caused during a rush or panic to exit as soon as possible.

Warehouses Can Cause A Personal Injury Claim Birmingham

A factory or warehouse, regardless of being situated in the Midlands or Scotland can be a dangerous place to work. If you imagine that there is a lot of machinery and people working in close proximity. There is potential for someone to suffer a personal injury and need to make a personal injury Birmingham.

A warehouse also has a lot of operations from deliveries being unloaded and stored to pick and pack services that are also part of a warehouse operation.  There is a lot of machinery that is involved in receiving deliveries and unloading so it is important to make sure that health and safety processes are strictly followed.

Warehouses are often noisy areas aswell, so there is not always an option to alert other staff members to a potential danger. Forklift trucks loading and unloading can be dangerous and they need lots of space to manoeuvre. There are health and safety implications for overloading a stacker truck and for not unloading it correctly.

One of the key areas of warehouse management is also applied to the construction industry and this is space awareness and making sure that everyone knows their roles and responsibilities and safe areas of working. The same dangers that apply to a construction site can also happen within a warehouse such as objects falling from height and slips and trips and all of these can result in a personal injury Birmingham.

Stability of Buildings and Accident Claims

All buildings are required to be structurally sound. This sounds an obvious point, but in some cases buildings can become unstable and even deemed a hazard and not safe to enter. Structural collaspe can cause untold damage to the building, surrounding buildings and of course anybody in the buildings and areas close by.

In some cases buildings will require alterations or small changes that can improve the structure and make it safe for use again. However, before any work is completed there needs to be an assessment which is carried out by a professional and for health and safety reasons, no should enter the building or begin work on the building until this assessment has been carried out.  Regardless of the area, on a business park or town centre in Wolverhampton accidents can occur which could result in a personal injury Wolverhampton if the above actions are not done.

The structural survery will cover areas such as age of building, the previous use of building, what the type of construction was and surrounding buildings or structures that are close by. In the event of demolition there needs to be safe system of work put in place first to prevent any accident claim. Some of these actions include:

1. Estsablish exclusion zones and hard hat areas
2. Covered walkways
3. Training and supervising site workers

Next blog posts will be looking at excavations on a construction site - so stay tuned to get top marks in the next quiz.