You see them all the time, those ugly floor signs warning folks about wet floors from floor washing or cleaning up spills. So do you need those wet signs – yes you do! A business has a responsibility to make sure that their environment is safe for both employees and visitors. But, businesses have many other risks that need their attention as well.
There are three types of injuries that account for more than ninety percent of all injuries in a places of business. Most of them are preventable and failure to take common sense steps to protect everyone on your business premises leads to insurance claims and lawsuits. The three most common types of business place injuries relate to:
- Slip and Fall Accidents
- Negligent Security
- Attractive Nuisance
Slip and Fall Accidents
Most businesses report that their majority of business place injuries are slip and fall accidents. This is why it is important that wet floors have caution signs warning people that floors are wet. There is no need that the signs be ugly though.
Often, slip and fall accidents occur outside the business’s facility. Cracks and broken concrete, uneven pavement, parking lot potholes all need prompt repair. Until repairs can happen, cones or other means of warning people help people avoid being injured by the hazard.
Negligent Security
Every business has to take ordinary precautions to protect visitors on their premises from criminal attack. When a visitor on premises is subject to a third-party theft, or physical harm from criminal activity. Types of businesses that are normally involved in claims about negligent security includes:
- Arenas and Stadiums
- Motels
- Parking Lots
- Hotels
- Apartment buildings
Businesses in high-crime areas are especially vulnerable to legal liability for negligent security. All businesses must take proper commonsense security measures for people on their premises. These include:
- Security lights
- Video cameras
- Warning signs
- Security guards for businesses in high-crime areas
- Other measures as needed, such as emergency call and sirens in parking lots.
Attractive Nuisance
This is a legal doctrine that protects children, even if they trespass, who suffer injuries due to an attractive nuisance.
The roots of the attractive nuisance doctrine dates to the age of railroads. A six year-old boy suffered a crushed foot while climbing on a railroad turntable in 1873. The United States Supreme Court found that the railroad, the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad was liable for the boy’s injury (Henry Stout). The Supreme Court found for Stout ruling that the temptation to children was an implicit invitation to come on the premises. Once the child status’ changed from trespasser to invitee, the railroad had to take actions to prevent the child from getting to the turntable.
- The top-ten nuisances are:
- Construction sites
- Swimming Pools
- High-voltage power lines
- Water hazards caused by rain or abandoned quarries
- Refrigerators and freezers
- Abandoned cars and unlocked parked cars
- Working farms
- Excavation trenches, sewer drains, wells, drainage ditches, quarries, holding tanks and open pits.
- Trampolines, jungle gyms, Play sets, tree houses, and skateboard ramps
- Railroads
Some of the above reasons have mixed results when brought to court, other appear as settled law.
- However, the best way to avoid legal liability for an attractive nuisance is to take the correct measures to prevent a child to get access to the hazard.
- Schedule an appointment with your business insurance advisor to make sure you have the correct liability insurance, need an umbrella policy, and if he or she can give you a liability check list for you to do a self-audit for your business.
