Safety To-Do #4: Make Your Stairways Safer

This week’s Safety To-Do item comes from a personal experience.  Had the incident been caught on camera, it would have certainly made the America’s Funniest Home Videos reel.  I was trotting down the stairs, coffee cup in one hand, water glass in the other, thinking about the day ahead when suddenly, the steps disappeared from under my feet.  On my expedited decent, I happened to catch a glimpse of the water glass out of the corner of my eye as it hit squarely on the floor below, spraying water several feet into the air like Old Faithful in miniature. What happened to the coffee cup is a mystery.

As I sat on the floor at the base of the steps, which end in the foyer, I chuckled to myself at the thought of what I must have looked like and was thankful no one had been approaching the front door, flanked by sidelight windows.  It wasn’t until I tried to get up that I realized I had actually hurt myself.  The bruised and inflamed hip that made it nearly impossible to walk for several days did not take away from the hilarious image of the event; it did, however, make me realize something needed to be done to make sure it didn’t happen again.

While on my quest for safer stairs, I decided to conduct a bit of research to determine if this type of accident is common or if I am just unusually unbalanced (or both).  As it turns out, I am far from alone.  According to the National Center for Health Statistics, falls account for the highest percentage of unintended injuries treated in emergency rooms for every age-group, except those 18-24 for whom motor vehicle accidents lead.

Overall, from 2000 to 2005, Americans are estimated to have visited emergency rooms for fall-related injuries more than 39.7 million times, almost 8 million times per year, on average.  Cross-referencing that data with statistics from National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) reveals that approximately 14%, or 5.5 million, of those falls are attributed to stairs, more than a million per year.

Since I am willing to bet that you do not want to join me and the million or so other Americans as a “stair statistic,” your safety task for this week is to go through this short checklist to help make your steps safer:

• Walk, don’t trot. (o.k. that was a gimme, I should have known better.)
• If you have wood stairs, install a runner or individual, secured treads.
• Check carpeted stairs for worn spots, snags, stray threads and loose or missing tacks.
• If you are expecting a baby or have young children at home, install a wall-mounted gate.  Spring loaded or pressure pole gates are not recommended for stairways.
• Tighten loose handrails.  This is a perfect job for a handyman service if you are short on time …or handiness.
• Remove any throw rugs from the areas near the top and bottom of the stairs.
• Make sure stairs are well lit.  Replace burned out bulbs and schedule time with an electrician to fix wiring in broken switches.
• Keep stairs free of clutter.
• If wood, wipe stairs with a damp cloth frequently until runners or treads are installed, as dust can make wood even slicker.   Avoid polishes and wax.

Although following these tips cannot guarantee one’s safety, take it from me, just reducing the probability of a fall on the stairs is well worth the time and effort.  I have posted links to some of the items mentioned above in the Helpful Products section at the top right of this page.  If you have additional suggestions for stair safety, I would love to hear from you.