Ice and the Health and Safety at Work Act

piplip87

Hey guys,

I am currently building a website for a small business whose products include Rock Salt for de-icing purposes. I have a couple of questions maybe you guys can help point me in the right direction.

1) Would the section of the act that deals with safe access to and egress from it apply to car parks/footpaths owned by the company or designated for company use?

2) Does the above fall into the hazard and risk assessment section of the act. If a company knows that car parks, footpath are liable to freeze over and become a slip hazard do they have the obligation to make sure the paths are treated i.e stock up on rocksalt as a preventative measure.

Does the above still apply to customer car parks and paths if they are owned by the company or does the same exemption that county councils get for public paths apply ?

Lenar3556

piplip87 wrote: »

Hey guys,

I am currently building a website for a small business whose products include Rock Salt for de-icing purposes. I have a couple of questions maybe you guys can help point me in the right direction.

1) Would the section of the act that deals with safe access to and egress from it apply to car parks/footpaths owned by the company or designated for company use?

2) Does the above fall into the hazard and risk assessment section of the act. If a company knows that car parks, footpath are liable to freeze over and become a slip hazard do they have the obligation to make sure the paths are treated i.e stock up on rocksalt as a preventative measure.

Does the above still apply to customer car parks and paths if they are owned by the company or does the same exemption that county councils get for public paths apply ?

1) It does

2) Most firms would, for a wide variety of reasons wish their premises and surrounding environs to be safe for employees and customers. They could reasonably be expected to have measures in place to avoid an excessive slipping hazard in typical Irish weather conditions. This might involve applying salt/grit in winter, or employing a road surface which was inherently non-slip, such as certain types of sand/gravel having suitable drainage.

A private supermarket car park for example who allowed a situation arise whereby the place became an ice rink is leaving themselves open to litigation in the event of an injury occurring. How successful that action would be is another matter and would depend on the circumstances - ice is a naturally occurring phenomenon in winter and a certain expectation of care rests with the users of the carpark also.