Falls on Stairs

In 1978 the Buffalo Organisation for Social and Technological Innovation prepared a document “Home Safety Guidelines for Architects and Builders” for the Centre for Building Technology of the National Engineering Laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. In the introductions to staircases they indicate that the US Consumer Product Safety Commission regarded stairs as the second most hazardous consumer product (presumably after motor vehicles), resulting in between 1,800,000, and 2,660,000 disabling injuries each year, and that there were about 3,800 deaths each year from falls on stairs. The stairs are a more serious problem for children and the elderly with the majority of fatalities occurring in the over 65 age group.

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