Injury during evacuation drill

[shaunmckeever]

Can anyone throw some light on a story that regularly crops up when I conduct evacuation drills.

I am informed that there was a case where an unannounced evacuation drill resulted in a building occupant incurring a leg injury. The person apparently successfully sued her employer for not giving prior warning of the drill which resulted in her having an accident and breaking a leg or twisting an ankle.

I cannot find any details of this case and doubt if it is true but I would like to know if there is any truth in the story.

[Chris Houston]

If it were true, what would need to be proven was that the employer breached his duty of care and that the breach directly lead to a loss.  

Employers can ensure that their duty's of care are fulfiled by taking reasonable steps to avoid forseeable injuries by complying with legisaltion and undertaking risk assessments.  I would suggest that if you advised employees how to react in a drill, recoreded such training, undertook a risk assessment and followed any recommendations that came from the risk assessment, then it would be quite difficult for an employee to make a successfull claim.

It's always the screwball claim that makes the headlines, not the 99.99% that never make it to court.

[eddy orr]

Had a check through Croners "Case Law & Selwyns Commentary" could not find any trace of such an incident! Searched under "fire Drill" "drill" and "evacuation". Personally think this will be folklore or anecdotal, but if you think of another search string to use, just let me know and I'll try it .

[jokar]

Wasn't this a case that the FPA were involved with?  I seem to remeber that there was an edict from them stating this to ensure that individuals were informed prior to a drill taking place because of the risk or injury.  It may be that the case involved a pregnant woman.  Again, could all be folklore.

[AnthonyB]

That type of person would sue in all cases - a fire is unannounced -if they'd broken their leg then who do you blame?

Too wide a notification results in a waste of time for monitoring purposes as you get a false reaction. The staff training & awareness should predate drills and the escape routes should be in good physical condition so that you are covered. If they knew there a a drill they may still be as clumsy and twist their ankle anyway.

The only injuries I've seen are from people karate chopping Redlam Bolts that had glass rather than ceramic tubes. Redlam Bolts and latches behind glass covers have almost lead to crushing/trampling inuries through ignorance of how to use (locked door syndrome as they only see the padlock on the Redlam or the keyhole above the glass covered latch)