What you can’t see, CAN hurt you
From: JPM Magazine – IREM Website
May/June Issue
Link: http://www.jpm-digital.org/jpm/may_june_2013#article_id=285812
Taking safety hazards for granted has a long and humorous history. Think of the slapstick-humor image of someone walking into the side of a building—it's been around since the pratfalls of silent movies. More recently, this type of attention-getting humor has also found its way into TV commercials. One example is a cholesterol medication commercial where male twins walk together side-by-side in a corridor, talking to one another. One strolls unaffected through an open door while his twin smacks into the adjacent closed glass door. Humor aside, these incidents do unfortunately happen, and sometimes with injurious results.
The increased use of glass in contemporary design has unfortunately created a number of potential safety hazards. One such problem involves large unmarked glass wall components, which may not be seen by people coming and going. This is especially critical with an aging population where large unmarked glass components may not be seen. Keep in mind that where an injury occurs, a law suit may follow.
A recent incident involved Evelyn Paswall, who went to an Apple store in New York. The typical design of Apple stores consist of very large glass entrance walls. Evelyn, an 83-year-old grandmother, didn't appreciate she was heading straight for an inadequately marked glass wall as she approached the store. She broke her nose as a result of the collision. As a result of this incident, she sued Apple for $1 million dollars.
While it is easy to blame our increasingly litigious society and the individual for walking into a glass panel, it should be noted that the design industry and building codes have been cognizant of human impact loads on glass for about 40 years. The codes have responded and now limit the size, location and type of glass where human impact loads are expected.
In 1970, State Safety Glazing Acts were enacted which required the use of safety glazing and required transparent glass panels to be guarded and/or marked to alert the public to their presence. While these laws focused more on injuries resulting from broken glass, injuries may still occur from unexpectedly walking into an unmarked glass door or panel with toughened safety glazing.
While it is impractical to eliminate large unmarked expanses of glass, they do represent an unnecessary liability. There are methods to prevent or at least reduce the possibility of people accidentally walking into them.
In addition to legislative requirements for conspicuously marking large expanses of glass, similar recommendations are also found in industry standards which consistently recommend separating people from the glass, or at a minimum providing a warning to alert people of the presence of the glass.
Recommended methods to prevent glass panels from appearing to be open walkways or doorways include using guardrails or other barriers, such as plants; or conspicuously identifying the glass with etching, tapes or decals. Property managers should understand the regulatory requirements and applicable industry standards related to this issue. While too often viewed as humorous, people inadvertently walking into large unmarked glass panels is a real occurrence that affects people, including the property manager.
Methods of preventing this incident from occurring are known and can be inexpensively installed. It's your liability, manage it as you will.
JULIUS PEREIRA III
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
IS THE OWNER OF PEREIRA CONSULTING IN CHADDS FORD, PA.
