Slip and Fall In School Cafeteria Results In Injury

Case Overview

This case takes place in North Dakota and involves a slip and fall on a wet school cafeteria floor. The school cafeteria was rented out to the YMCA to run an after school program. The building maintenance staff cleans/mops the floor every day at 2:00 PM and the after school program starts promptly at 2:30 PM. On this occasion, an after school counselor slipped on the wet floor and suffered two broken wrists that required surgery.

Questions to the Occupational Health and Safety expert and their responses

How much time should be given for proper cleaning / drying of floors when scheduling back to back activities?

Whether a facility should conduct an activity so soon after mopping would depend on several circumstances. Was appropriate signage placed at the scene? What chemicals, if any, were used, as this could affect drying time and the presence of any residue? What is the standard practice in the facility? Prior to the incident, was there a change in standard procedures that set up a belief that it was safe to begin when it actually wasn't?

How do you determine when activities can resume after a floor has been wet mopped?

Did the group conducting the activity perform an assessment of the facility prior to the start of the activity? Such an assessment may have seen the wet floor, and would have alerted them to the possible danger. As a school administrator, I am very familiar with such situations. While serving as an athletic director, I would clean floors prior to the start of volleyball and basketball games and developed procedures to keep people off the floor until it the conditions were safe and adequate for us. As a school safety specialist, I help school principals develop procedures for activities in cafeterias and gymnasiums that include safety checks and reporting procedures.

About the expert

This highly qualified expert is a certified school safety specialist, a 12 year U.S. Army Reserve veteran, and has 24 years of experience overseeing school operations. He is a member of numerous professional organizations including the Indiana Association of School Principals, National Association of Elementary School Principals, and National Association of Secondary School Principals. He has received multiple awards throughout his career such as the Campus Safety Magazine Director of the Year and IASP Indian Assistant Principal of the Year 2012. This expert has published 3 articles on school safety. Currently, he is the Director of Transportation/School Safety at a school in the Midwest.

E-009388

Specialties:

Occupational Health and Safety