Facility Planning & Operations: Planning & Design

A risk audit requires an eye for detail, since many dangers associated with the operation of your facility will not be immediately apparent as you perform a walk-through. Some potential trouble spots, like this one — banked corners retrofit onto a college recreation center's original flat track, complete with steep drop-off on the outside of the curve — should be easy even for a layperson to recognize. However, identifying the track's potential user groups will go a long way toward determining just how grave the risk is. If this track's users will be practiced runners familiar with the nuances of running on a banked surface, a fall is highly unlikely. If the facility were intended for older adults with sight or mobility issues, it would be a different story. The use of a thin yellow line to mark the outside edge seems somewhat comical given the height of the drop-off, but it is an important detail. A yellow line won't prevent a fall, but it will serve to warn users of a potential hazard — an aspect of most slip-fall cases that eventually reach the courts.

risk audit    track    banked corners    slip-fall