Do your employees walk around your facility, or down the street, with their faces buried in their mobile phones? Even if they’re on company business, this is just not a good idea, according to Professor Jack Nusar of The Ohio State University who warns of the dangers of what’s being called “distracted walking.”
Nusar’s research reveals that more than 1,500 people were estimated to be treated in emergency rooms in 2010 for injuries related to using a cell phone while walking.
“If current trends continue, I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of injuries to pedestrians caused by cell phones doubles again between 2010 and 2015,” Nusar says. He believes the numbers could actually be quite a bit higher. If the pedestrian numbers are underreported, as is likely the case for drivers, there may have been about 2 million pedestrian injuries related to mobile phones in 2010, the year Nusar studied.
Whatever safety meeting you need, chances are you’ll find it prewritten and ready to use in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library on CD. Try it at no cost or risk. Here’s how.
Watch the Multitasking
While being able to multitask is usually considered a productivity booster, that’s not the case when one of the activities is using a mobile phone. “Stop walking when you’re going to take a cell phone call or text. Don’t do two things at once,” advised Nusar.
His study offered details about some of the accidents. In one, a 28-year-old man walked into a pole and lacerated his brow. Another man suffered a sprained elbow and spinal sprain when he was hit by a car while on the phone.
Hopefully your employees are getting the message about the hazards of distracted driving. But make sure you also discuss the hazards of distracted walking with them.
Other tips for keeping employees on their feet and avoiding accidents include:
- Keep floors and stairs clean and clear of clutter.
- Maintain good lighting both indoors and on outdoor walkways.
- Secure electrical and phone cords out of traffic areas.
- Clean up all spills immediately.
- Never stand on a chair, table, or surface on wheels.
- Arrange furniture and other items and materials to provide open pathways to walk through.
We challenge you to NOT find a safety meeting you need, already prewritten, in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library. Take up our challenge at no cost or risk. Get the details.
Prevent Accidents with Training
BLR’s Safety Meetings Library provides the perfect resources for conducting frequent and engaging training for preventing accidents of all kinds. This cost-effective resource provides safety meetings as well as supporting handouts, quizzes, posters, and safety slogans.
All told, the CD provides you with more than 400 ready-to-train meetings on more than 100 key safety topics—a shrewd investment in this time of tight safety budgets. In addition to the meetings’ supplemental quizzes and handouts, you also get relevant regulations (OSHA’s CFR 29), a listing of the most common safety violations cited by OSHA, and case studies of actual OSHA cases and their outcomes.
Safety Meetings Library lets you choose from a variety of training approaches, including:
- Mandatory— Sessions that are OSHA-required
- Comprehensive— Sessions with broadest coverage of a topic
- 7-Minute— Short, simple, targeted sessions to fit tight schedules
- Initial— A session used as introductory training on a topic
- Refresher— Sessions that follow up on or reinforce previous training
- Tool Box Talk— More informal reinforcement of a topic
- PowerPoint®— Graphic presentations for comprehensive initial or refresher training
- Hands-on— A session in which there are training activities
- Spanish— Including Spanish language handouts and quizzes coordinated with English sessions
You can get a preview of the program by using the links below. But for the best look, we suggest a no-cost, no-obligation trial.
Just let us know and we’ll arrange it for you..