Focus on your shopping safety!

Have you ever seen or been involved in the craziness of the Black Friday shopout? Well, we’re going to tell you all about what to do to stay safe in these situations. People are always wondering about their safety while shopping. These are some common questions regular pedestrians like you ask, “Are my children and I safe shopping during the holidays or black Friday?” or “does the store have employees around to keep things calm and under control?” In this post, we're going to break down some of the biggest dangers associated with shopping during the holiday season, and give tips on how to avoid them.

The first kind of shopping injury is the slip-and-fall. The most common effect of a slip-and-fall incident are head and body injuries. These sorts of accidents can occur for many reasons—from the craziness of crowds, having to reach for high-up or far-away items, or from structural safety lapses like a wet floor or poor lighting.

Another very common accident that can come from shopping is a cart injury. This can result in carts tipping over, or being struck by someone else’s cart. Children especially can be affected in this manner of injuries. An average of 21,600 children were treated annually for shopping injuries in the US between 1985-1996, anestimated 12,800 of whom were treated for falling out of their carts. Such falls can cause severe  injuries such as concussions and fractures. And the numbers have continued to rise; more than 24,000 children were treated in 2005, according to the American Academy of Pediatric.

Yet another kind of accident that can arisewhile shopping is an escalator or elevator incident. Accidents of this type kill roughly 30 people annually and injure about 17,000 in the United States alone, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Most of these incidents, roughly 70%, are caused by falls from the escalator.

                Overcrowding in malls and shopping centers can be a danger as well. This is the kind of injury that we see so much of on Black Friday or during shopping sprees. On Black Friday in 2008, a New York Wal-Mart employee was trampled by a stampede of shoppers, and since then, the Occupation Safety and Health Administration issued new crowd guidelines for retailers. Still, stores will be extra busy throughout the upcoming holiday season, so be careful! This also applies to the parking lots of America’s shopping centers, and parking lot injuries are another extremely common form of accident this time of year.  These problems may be made even worse by the extreme circumstances of shopping during the holiday season:  rear-ending and other types of collisions may occur as a result of crowded parking lots, tired drivers, and tensions running high. These types of incidents may result in injuries such as whiplash as well as back and neck trauma.

                So now you know many of the dangers that can affect shopper’s safety during the shopping seasons. So now get out there have fun shopping but please be cautious and remember to give back to needy people this season--give back and feel good!