1. Situation of occurrence
(1) A worker (the injured party) was making a map for a promotion in another room, so she frequently went back and forth between the room and his desk.
(2) At around 19:30 when she was going through the passage located behind his desk at the left side, she tripped on the corrugated carton put down on the floor and fell down. She hit left hand and left shoulder on the floor.
(3) There used to be things on the other side of the passage; so shewas careful about walking through. But at the place on which she fell down, usually no things had been put, so she did not pay attention to the passage and did not notice the corrugated carton being there. The passage was narrower because the top flaps of the corrugated carton were slightly open. Passers-by were likelyto catch their feet with this flap.
(4) Right after she hit her hand and shoulder, her left hand had a touch of red on its surface as scraped. But she returned home with no treatment about it.
(5) Next morning, she purchased a poultice on the way to work and paste it, and waited and saw. Her swelling and pain continued. Around 14 o’clock, she reported to the leader of her section and went to hospital (Oh Clinic).
(6) At the hospital, it was confirmed by x-ray examination that herbones had no abnormality. She was diagnosed with bruises and given poultices and three day doses of analgesic and antiphlogistic drug. Shewas told to come again for checkup a week later.
2. Cause
(1) Employees’ seats arrangements were being changed; since the previous day,the corrugated carton in which fabric swatches were stored and which had been put under the desk of an employee who was on a business trip then was temporality placed on the passage.
(2) Since the top flaps were open, the passage was narrower than usual.
(3) Since it was put just round the corner, a blind spot was produced.
(4) The injured party did not pay attention to her steps because she was making swatches
3.Emergency Measure
(1) The corrugated carton on the passage was carried to and put in a storehouse.
(2) It must be urgently checked, by Tokyo Head Office’s safety patrol, that no things are put on the passages. Things must be urgently removed, especially from the places where accidents may occur.
4. Permanent Measure
(1) After safety patrol confirms situations, a rule that prohibits leaving a thing on a passage must be established. We have to make this rule known to all employees.
(2) A specific place must be designated for things such as boxes of courier service when they need to be put on a passage. Location of this place must be indicated in a clearly understandable way. Leaving a thing at other places uncontrolled shall be prohibited
(3) When a thing is delivered to the office while the person in charge of this delivery is out, the thing must not be put on the floor; it must be kept on or under a desk, or in a place designated by each division.
(4) This case must be reported at Tokyo Head Office Safety and Health Committee as Hiyari-Hatto and its information must be disseminated enoughin order to prevent similar accidents.
(1) Though it was temporarily, a corrugated carton was left uncontrolled on a passage. Awareness to comply with the safety rules of our section was not built up.
(2) We did not see any problem on the worker’s health and cloths on the day; however, she had a lower back pain daily, so it seems that she was not in good shape enough to have instant reaction.