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Load lifting causes sprains and strains mainly through monotonous continuity
of lifting and carrying work, few rest periods combined with a lack of
physical ability of the person employed. The booklet "Lifting and Carrying"
has been recommended for display in warehouses, shops and stores for the
guidance of persons employed in such work.
Several accidents have been reported of staff walking through clear glass
doors or through collisions when meeting on each side of a solid door. In the
former case demarcation colouring or bars have been fitted to the doors and
in the latter small observation windows (with the approval of the Fire Authority)
have been inserted.
Horseplay is responsible for a few accidents. A young girl fractured her
wrist as a result of falling off the balustrade of a staircase down which she had
been sliding.
An Inspector whilst carrying out an inspection of an office, found a youth
with long hair operating a printing machine with the guards removed. Immediate
representation to the management resulted in censure of the employee and the
immediate reinstatement of the guard.
A typist sustained a cracked vertebra through falling when the chair she
was about to sit on slipped away on castors. The chair was replaced by one
without castors. Defective chairs are found from time to time and removed or
repaired on representation by notice.
In a Supermarket a young person (under 16) sustained a cut finger whilst
(iperating a mechanically operated gravity feed slicing machine. A Notice was
clearly exhibited on the machine, that no person under 18 was permitted to use
the machine, or to clean it. Investigation revealed that the boy had acted on
his own free will. He had not been trained in the use of the machine and was
not under supervision. An assurance was received that no person would be employed
at the counter in question unless he had full operational knowledge of
the machine.
An accident occurred in connection with a similar machine in a Supermarket
whereby a woman employee cut her finger whilst wiping the blade of
the machine. Statements taken under caution revealed a conflict of evidence
in respect of the adequacy of training, but the Company was warned, in writing,
of the need for such training. As a result, the Managers of all branches of the
Company were reminded of their duty to ensure that the requirements as to
training were observed.
A woman employee in an office suffered injury to her kneecap due to colliding
with the opened drawer of a filing cabinet. The filing cabinet was subsequently
re-sited.
Loading bays need constant supervision. An employee, wheeling a pallet
containing reams of paper from a van parked close to the loading bay, slipped
on the polished steel edge of the deck and fell some 30 inches from the loading
bay deck to the ground. He sustained a crushed kneecap and laceration of the