Many individuals have serious concerns about tumbling down the stairs, whether at work, at home, or in public. It’s crucial to learn how to avoid accidents as soon as possible since they have the potential to cause life-altering damage.
Every time you use stairs, stairway safety should always be your first priority. Handrails, carpets, and anti-slip coatings provide users with the assurance that the surroundings of staircases are secure. Although there may be safety precautions on a staircase that limit future accidents, it does not entirely avoid them from happening.
What Are the Common Injuries From Falling Down Stairs?
What are the most prevalent injuries caused by a stairwell fall? The distance you fell, whether the steps were carpeted, and if the stairway was enclosed are all variables that will impact the severity and character of your injuries if you fall downstairs. While each individual may get a different injury as a consequence of a fall, there are a few that are more common than others. Typical examples include the following:
- Neck & back injuries, as well as traumatic brain injury
- Spinal-cord injury
- Shattered or fractured bones
- Deep laceration or contusion
- Broken facial bones
- Compound fractures of the wrists and hands
- A sprain or a strain
- Dislocations
- Harm to organs
- Bleeding, internal and external
The degree of your injuries will, of course, be determined by the type of staircase involved and how you fell. For example, you may fall forward and put your weight on your arm, or you could fall backward and forcefully bang your head on the above stairs.
Many injuries can be quite serious and need a lot of medical attention, including emergency care, surgeries, hospital stays, rehabilitation therapy, and any other necessary treatments.
Do Stairway Falls Often Involve Negligence?
It is the responsibility of property owners to keep all stairways on their property fairly safe for guests. Unfortunately, a lot of falls happen because careless property owners fail to uphold this duty of care and maintain their property. The following are some instances of carelessness that result in stair falls:
- Damaged or unequal stairs
- Lacking sufficient railings
- Lacking sufficient lighting in stairwells
- Having overly steep or few steps and allowing rotting or lose stair planks
- Worn carpet on the staircase
- Slippery or wet surfaces
- Not alerting visitors about potential risks
A property owner may be held accountable for the damages suffered by a fall victim due to any of the aforementioned hazardous situations.
Home Stair Safety at Home and Your Workplace
Employers should prioritize stair safety at work. It’s crucial to take the necessary steps to prevent accidents because they can occur at any time and to anybody.
The staircase in issue will determine if this is due to stairway construction or a specific problem. It would be tragic if you or one of your employees were hurt as a result of faulty construction or a lack of protective elements.
Stair safety is equally important in the home as it is in the workplace. Falls down the stairs can happen at any time. As a result, in addition to making physical adjustments to your staircase to make it safer overall, it’s vital that you follow the proper safety measures when using it. For instance, you could:
- Maintain your alertness while utilizing the stairs
- You eliminate any potential tripping dangers
- Take your time up the steps
To prevent accidents, everyone in your home or place of employment should practice stairway safety, not just you. It just takes a fraction of a second for one to occur.
Aftercare and Seeking Help
If an accident occurs, understanding how to recover from a fall down the stairs is important. All of the injuries stated above are quite serious, prompting the individual to seek medical attention in the majority of situations.
Depending on the severity of your injuries, it is essential that you visit a doctor or healthcare specialist in order to receive the proper care for a stair-related injury.
We hope that this guide has shown you the most typical injuries that can arise from falling steps, the laws that apply to such injuries, how to recover from a fall, and most importantly, how to avoid such injuries in the first place.
Contact Kaass Law at 310.943.1171 to discuss your case further.