Keep Your Students, Staff, and Guests Safe: |
Walkway safety is a commonly overlooked safety factor in schools. Unfortunately each year school districts in California spend millions of dollars on settlements and judgments arising from injuries to students. School-related injuries to students occur in classrooms and school yards under a wide range of circumstances, the majority of which are trip or slip hazards. While it is unrealistic to expect that school-related injuries to students can be completely eliminated, it is not unreasonable to believe they can be substantially reduced in number. Keeping students, staff, and guests safe is a win for everybody.
Keep Students With Disabilities Happy: |
New college students with disabilities are often insecure. Navigating a complicated bureaucracy for the first time with far less institutional support than they had in high school, these students often must overcome stigma and ignorance surrounding their disabilities and advocate for themselves, which they're often not used to doing. The alternative: risk not getting the tools they need to succeed academically. Getting a wheel chair stuck on a trip hazard isn't only frustrating for the student but also a big safety risk as they can easily be jolted out of the chair and onto the concrete.
Your School is Liable:
In general, accidents that are sustained on a college campus will fall under the umbrella of premises liability. To elaborate, premises liability is a legal theory that allows property owners to be held liable for any injuries sustained on their premises, under certain circumstances. Specifically, a property owner has a duty to provide a safe premise for guests, and to timely fix or warn of any hazards that may exist in order to prevent any accidents from occurring. Failure to do so can be used in a legal claim to recover compensation for damages. Title 3 is the portion of the ADA that deals with walkways. It requires that any facility open to the public must remove “architectural barriers” that make equal use difficult for the disabled*. A ¼ inch vertical difference (the size of 4 stacked quarters), or slopes steeper than 1:12 are barriers & dangers to the disabled, kids & seniors.
The Solutions:
1. Ignoring trip hazards and ADA compliance issues: This has proven to be a costly risk for cities and businesses as the average slip & trip injury settlement in California is $40,000**. If your trip hazards are easy to see and could be repaired at a reasonable cost then by California standards you are fully liable not only for injury but for lawsuit by ANY party that wishes to bring an ADA noncompliance lawsuit.
2. Asphalt Ramping and Grinding: These are the cheapest solutions but while they may reduce the likelihood of a trip they do not remove your ADA liability or exposure to a lawsuit. Both options are the least aesthetically pleasing and end up accelerating the deterioration of the concrete at the site and often even damage adjoining concrete panels, increasing later repair costs.
3. Concrete Replacement: This solution works in every situation and is aesthetically the most pleasing but the high cost and long sidewalk downtime make it impractical for most situations.
4. Concrete Slicing: A patented process which is the smartest option for the largest percentage of sidewalk trip hazards. It is more aesthetically pleasing than grinding or ramping, and never compromises the longevity of the site or adjoining sites. It offers full compliance with ADA standards. Finally concrete slicing offers 70-90% savings as an alternative to replacement for trip hazards between ¼ to 2 inches.
2. Asphalt Ramping and Grinding: These are the cheapest solutions but while they may reduce the likelihood of a trip they do not remove your ADA liability or exposure to a lawsuit. Both options are the least aesthetically pleasing and end up accelerating the deterioration of the concrete at the site and often even damage adjoining concrete panels, increasing later repair costs.
3. Concrete Replacement: This solution works in every situation and is aesthetically the most pleasing but the high cost and long sidewalk downtime make it impractical for most situations.
4. Concrete Slicing: A patented process which is the smartest option for the largest percentage of sidewalk trip hazards. It is more aesthetically pleasing than grinding or ramping, and never compromises the longevity of the site or adjoining sites. It offers full compliance with ADA standards. Finally concrete slicing offers 70-90% savings as an alternative to replacement for trip hazards between ¼ to 2 inches.
*San Diego Union Tribune, Oct 4, 2017 ** legalhelp.org/741-average-slip-fall-claim-settlement-amount.html