Walking-Working Surfaces and Pedestrian Safety (Gaining Traction in Your Walking-Working Surfaces Program)

Falls, slips, and trips are among the leading causes of work-related, accounting for 865 fatalities in 2022 alone. Another 325 people were killed in occupational pedestrian vehicular incidents. 

Effective pedestrian safety and walking-working surfaces programs are comprehensive and multifaceted. Developing the right approach begins with a deep understanding of the variable risk factors that create an opportunity for incidents to occur. A thorough risk assessment is a prudent starting point in the risk management process. 

Utilizing proven risk assessment processes, health and safety practitioners can evaluate their environments to identify hazards and measure the likelihood and severity of risks. Those insights can then be used alongside a risk matrix to inform the development of controls that protect people and the work environment. 

Continuous monitoring of the walking-working surfaces program is necessary to ensure proper control over the issues identified during the inspection process. The control strategy should aim to eliminate each problem or reduce it to a manageable risk level. Unless health and safety practitioners can genuinely say that deviations and issues in the walking-working surfaces program have been eliminated and it’s impossible for them to return, the cycle of looking for, evaluating and controlling risks should continue as part of the improvement process. 

In his Insight Report  Walking-Working Surfaces and Pedestrian Safety, Gaining Traction in Your Walking-Working Surfaces Program, Scott Gaddis, Vice President and Global Practice Leader—Safety and Health at Intelex Technologies

Inc., provides risk management perspectives, tools and a comprehensive inspection checklist to help you assess walking-working surfaces and address hazards. 

• Common causes of falls and pedestrian incidents 
• How to inspect your work environment for slip, trip and fall hazards 
• Risk assessment methodology and risk matrix to evaluate and estimate risk levels 
• Hierarchy of controls to understand appropriate measures to reduce risks 
• Walking-Working Surface Inspection Checklist