OSHA issues warning about holiday shopping crowds
OSHA is getting into the holiday spirit with what’s become something of a tradition for the safety agency: issuing an annual reminder about the dangers of large shopping crowds.
The agency released a Fact Sheet on crowd management for retail stores and is sending it to employers who will face the shopping season’s first swarms of shoppers on “Black Friday” — the day after Thanksgiving.
The resource encourages employers to create a crowd management plan broken into four categories: planning, pre-event setup, during the sales event and emergency situations. OSHA says these plans should include:
- On-site trained security personnel or police officers
- Barricades or rope lines for pedestrians that do not start right in front of the store’s entrance
- The implementation of crowd control measures well in advance of customers arriving at the store
- Emergency procedures in place to address potential dangers
- Methods for explaining approach and entrance procedures to the arriving public
- Not allowing additional customers to enter the store when it reaches its maximum occupancy level, and
- Not blocking or locking exit doors.
OSHA first took notice of how dangerous large crowds can be after a worker was trampled to death at a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, NY on Black Friday. Inspectors issued a $7,000 violation of the agency’s General Duty Clause for failing to protect workers from large crowds. Wal-Mart spent millions fighting the fine, but ultimately the citation was upheld.