Safer surfaces to walk on (C652F)

Slipping accidents cause many thousands of occupational major injuries each year, over 90 per cent of which involve broken bones, and much pain, suffering and financial loss for society. Yet the perception by the public, the workforce and those who design or manage floors in buildings, is that these accidents are inevitable.

This CIRIA good practice guide has been produced as part of the Health and Safety Commission's programme to reduce the number of slips and trips accidents in the UK. It is an attempt to give practical guidance to those who design, procure and manage flooring in buildings and is based upon many research projects undertaken, primarily by the Health and Safety Laboratory.

The CIRIA guide is based upon this research and in particular the Slip potential model, and is designed to provide designers, procurers and managers of floors with good practice guidance that, if followed, should significantly reduce the number of accidents on existing and new floors. This research will be used to update and extend the guide to become the authoritative guide to slips and trips.

An update to this publication has been produced to give an overview of developments in knowledge and research in the field of slips (and to some degree trips) since the guide was originally published. Download the free update 'here' (you must be registered on the CIRIA website to do this).

Key words: health and safety, materials technology, transport infrastructure, refurbishment, regulation, respect for people, risk and value management, facilities management