Posted By Danny Swygart I work on a heavy industrial site and the most serious accident we have had in 10 years was a broken leg suffered by one of the ladies in the office. She was running up the stairs with a tray of cream cakes!

Posted By Danny Swygart This lady was no Cherie Lunghi as her diet consisted mainly of the cream cakes she was carrying!

Posted By Karen Todd Hi Cheryl, See my posting on the Most Embarrassing Moments thread. I was rushing down the stairs, slipped, fell on my arse and literally slid down the stairs - bump, bump, bump. This was on the way to a health and safety conference. I put my forearm out rather than my hand (otherwise I might have broken my wrist), and ended up with the whole inner right forearm bruised, with 2 particularly huge bruises from where my arm hit the nosings of 2 steps. I actually have a photo that I took to show my husband what had happened via our camera phones, as he was working away at the time and wondered about the severity of my injuries. If you really, really want the photo I'll send it to you... Regards, Karen

Posted By Merv Newman I used to work for Dupont which for as long as I have known it has the formal, written rule "Running is strictly forbidden on site unless it is a matter of life or death" I have also worked with motorway patrol and maintenance people. Again, their safety manual says "You will not run" - Explanation given : If you have to run, that means you don't have much time, which probably means there is a 40 ton truck on it's way. What happens if you slip ? I worked with them for weeks and never saw one even breaking into a trot. Nor into a sweat if it comes to that.

Posted By Merv Newman Laurie, thanks for the "imminent tea break". I wish I'd said that - and I will Merv

Posted By Stuart Nagle Actual accident resulting in claim against company: 1) During a shift a tool used to 'hook' bogied running on rails and transfer them off a transfer trolley broke and needed to be fixed - this was a known risk to the management - the operative having reported it and requested the tool be fixed (welded) 2) Another tool was supplied that could do the task, though this was not designed for the task and had known risks - it could become trapped in the rails and chain drive and bind the system up causing expensive damage - if not removed immediately following the task 3) During the following shift the replacement tool was being used, it was not removed immediately following the task, the operator was away from the work station and the chain drive started to bind up (the tool,was now caught in the transfer trolley and the chain drive) which was likely to burn out the drive motor and cause expensive losses in production and replacement 4) A maintenance fitter was nearby, he heard the noise made by the tool binding up, recognised the noise, and ran to try and free the tool before expensive damage was done 5) As the maintenance fitter approached the transfer trolley - he fell (slipped as he ran onto the transfer trolley) and fell into a steel capstan on the transfer trolley deck injuring his knee 6) The binding up caused serious delay in production and costs for replacements ect 7) The fall of the maintenance fitter resulted in a RIDDOR reportable accident, loss of highly skilled staff from the workplace and resulted in a claim against the company which was successful 8) The accident investigation found the following: a) There was a proceedure for using the correct tool on the transfer trolley that specifically stated that the other (replacement) tool employed in the task WAS NOT to be used for this purpose b) There were no risk assessments for an alternative to using the correct tool although it was common practice to use the alternative tool - even though the plant operating procedures prohibited its use for obvious reasons (as above) c) The transfer trolley operator was a competent person, trained and knew what he was doing, but 'forgot' about the tool whilst carrying out another duty (it was a night shift and the accident occurred in the early hours of the morning!) d) There was no explaination for the fitter falling (nothing to trip over), except that he had run fast and turned a sharp corner (around a concrete pillar) to the transfer trolley when he fell into the capstan e) The fitter knew the layout and configuration of the area well and that running could have caused a fall - but felt he was acting in the best interests of the company in trying to prevent the problem f) The root cause of the accident was a failure to maintain the proper tool - by having a small crack (reported to management some two days earlier) welded up, which resulted in the tools failure. repair costs would have been about £50.00 g) An additional tool (spare) would have cost approximately £300.00 to manufacture on site in the workshop h) The actuall cost of the accident is estimated at some £5000.00 (investigation, management/professionals time, expenses etc) i) The costs of the accident in respect of the claim are estimated to be in excess of £13000.00 (+ unknown costs) j) The costs of the damage done to plant and loss of production and repair/down time etc are estimated at £20000.00) Costs for the accident are estimated at £38,000.00 Costs for having an additional tool and repairing the old one are estimated at £350.00 Costs of having assessed the procedure and producing written assessments etc are etsimated at £60.00 The total costs represent: £410.00 to have the task managed properly with the correct tools £38,000.00 for having failed to manage the works properly and provide an additional tool - which lead to the accident The costs of doing the job right would have been just over 1% of the cost of the accident!

Posted By Cheryl Perry Thank you Stuart This is a very good example and one that I can use to good effect in getting through the fact that the no running rule is very important in reducing the risk of accidents Best regards Cheryl