About one-seventh of all accidental deaths are due to injuries sustained because of a fall. Approximately 12,000 lives are lost annually.
Falls account for accidental deaths equally between the work and home environment.
This article will focus on clarifying what represents a slip, trip, or fall and the role countermeasures play in dealing with them. Future articles will specifically address each issue and provide additional countermeasures as they address each issue. Slips represent the loss of balance caused by too little friction between a human's feet and her or his walking surface. Both slips and trips often end in falls. Falls result when body movement shifts the body too far off the center of balance.