One of the most common causes of warehouse injury is falling from an elevated place.
Whether you’re at the edge of a loading dock ramp or climbing up the side of some pallet racking, all it takes is a momentary loss of balance to send you tumbling. From there, gravity does its work, and next thing you know, you are on the ground with an injury.
The good news is, with the proper reaction, the damage caused by a fall can be minimalized.
Tuck and Roll
If you find yourself falling, try to bring your body in, raising your knees, arching your back, lowering your head, and essentially curling yourself into a ball.
Also, if you’re falling from a great height, try to roll upon impact. This will greatly reduce the force that hits your body.
Protect Your Head
The most important part to protect when falling is your head. If you’re falling backwards, try and place an arm behind your head as you fall to cushion it. Alternatively, if you find yourself falling forward, turn your head to the left or right so that you don’t connect with your face.
Don’t Catch Your Self with Your Arms. Slap the Ground.
Trying to stop yourself with your hands can quickly lead to broken wrists and injured arms. Instead, if you are falling forward, slap the ground before making impact. This will slow your fall without causing serious injury to arms.
Practice
A lot of this probably sounds unnatural. After all, when you’re falling, your first reaction is to simply realize that you are falling. At best, you’ll end up putting your arms out to catch yourself (which you shouldn’t really be doing).
The only way to build up safe falling practices to is practice falling.
Find a soft surface like a mattress (or if you have some connections, maybe a pole vaulting mat) and practice falling on it. Do it enough times and your body will naturally remember how it should be falling.
And you’ll be a lot safer in the warehouse.
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