ICE CLEAT BLOG

I speak to our customers on a regular basis. One in particular has been buying our ice shoe cleats for years. Despite their purchase, they’ve still had a few slip and fall accidents on the ice and snow and are frustrated. After the accident investigations, they realized each incident had the same the root cause: None of the employees who fell were wearing the ice cleats and winter traction aids that were being provided.

Who doesn’t love winter?  With the snow falling, it’s simply a beautiful time of year. Some people, however, are far from excited. Why? With winter usually comes slips and falls. Not good news for the safety professionals out there. Now, some safety professionals hear the word “winter” and, all of the sudden, the mood in the room changes. Because they know their job is about to become even tougher.  Seasonal weather-related headaches are about to begin.  The challenge? Trying to find the easiest and safest ways to protect their employees who work in the ice and snow.

I like to tell a story about one of my many, reluctant trips to Costco. I was there on my day off, walking around the massive store with my short list of things to buy. As I’m filling my cart with 1,000 paper plates, I came across something that stopped me dead in my tracks. A display of ice cleats. Now this is my line of work. I can quickly recognize these for what they are; a low cost solution to a temporary problem. These types of ice cleats may be effective for someone who shovels their driveway three times a year or walks their dog in the snow a few times each winter. But I know full well[…]

Most ice cleats are NOT safe to wear indoors. Traditional ice cleats are engineered for one thing and one thing only - preventing slip and fall incidents on ice. That’s it. Since, obviously, Ice and snow don’t exist indoors, manufacturers don’t concentrate on indoor flooring materials when developing ice cleats to prevent slips and falls. This can severely complicate a company’s goal of reducing slip and fall incidents because, if traditional ice cleats are worn indoors, your employees are now at a high risk of causing a slip hazard.

Sometimes you think you've heard it all, and we have when it comes to excuses why people don't want to wear ice cleats. Time for a top 6 list... Too expensive. My employees won’t wear them. Can’t wear indoors. Can’t drive with them on. Employees won’t take care of them. We've tried everything and nothing works in my environment. Reality of buying the right ice traction for shoes or ice cleats from the right manufacturer. Ice cleats are far less expensive than the resulting costs associated with a slip and fall. Have you ever given your employees the chance to try them? If you did and they prov[…]

It’s not as difficult as you may think to reduce – and even eliminate – winter slips and falls on ice and snow. In fact, here are three ways to reduce accidents: 1. Eliminate The Act of Walking on Compromised Surfaces Think about all of the slip and fall accidents and slip hazard jobs that happened in your organization last winter while working outdoors and indoors. If you can eliminate walking in those areas, all of those accidents go away, right? And while this is easier said than done, it’s not impossible. Accomplishing this in one or two areas will make a dramatic difference in reducing yo[…]