Protect yourself with safer sandals, closed toes and non-slip shoes

A friend at the swimming pool told me she had hurt her ankle falling on stairs, wearing slip-on sandals with no backs and no toes. Her doctor told her he had had numerous cases of people slipping on the stairs in open-toed sandals. As you go down, your foot slides forward, out of the sandal, and projects beyond the stair and loses grip and you fall. He said one lady broke her ankle.

Many people wear slippers around the house, modern style slippers with no covering over toes. Even on the level, walking around a flat (what the Singaporeans would call a condo), I kept sliding out of my slippers. I might have been OK in London on fitted carpet. But I kept nearly slipping in Singapore when I walked fast on a floor with tiles or shiny imitation wood (like lino).

What's the solution?

1 Make sure you buy slippers with closed toes if you live in a house with a staircase.

2 Throw away or give away your old sandals. But throwing them away is wasteful. Giving them away is passing the problem onto somebody else. What can you do to construct a toe cover?
a Wear something on the outside, overshoes.
b Wear something inside, complete socks sewn to the sandal.
c Sew in a fabric toe-cap. Made from what? Made from cutting the front off socks which have worn holes in the heels but are still solid around the toes.

I slipped in Singapore as I ran down the steps towards a swimming pool before catching my flight home. Steps outdoors become wet from rain water or from the cleaners' daily mop around the area. The steps could be wet or you could have wet flip-flops from crossing the covered hallway towards the outdoor pool.

I slipped only four steps. But I landed on my coccyx. I was in agony and could not sit.

I was worried about how I would cope with the flight home. Would I have to stand all night on the overnight flight and get no sleep. How I would be able to stay in my seat during take-off and landing? I survived the taxi flight to the airport half reclining. I slept on the plane with my seat as near level as I could make it with the addition of pillows and blankets. After several weeks the problem diminishes and went away so that I had forgotten it - almost.

I invested in non-slip shoes to wear to the pool. I researched non-slip shoes for swimming and beaches on the internet, asking friends at swimming pools in gyms, and assistants in shops.

Walking down stairs to the pool in a gym, I go sideways, clinging onto the rail. (I am appalled by staircases which have rope rails only on one side.)

The information from the doctor about the danger of open toed shoes on stairs is merely hearsay. However, if you've already noticed yourself slipping, this reminder might help you to take action to prevent accidents.

Glossary
Flip-flops - sandals with no backs nor sides (UK term)
Thongs - sandals held by a thong between the big toe (New Zealand and Australia - in the UK thongs are underwear with a string at the back. They used to be called G-strings.)

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author and speaker,

Two deaths by falling - what kind of prevention

on Sunday 30 Aug 2015 I open the news and find not just one but two reports of people falling to their death. One is at a sports stadium in front of crowds of people. The other on a fire escape.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3215750/Turner-Field-spectator-dies-falling-upper-deck-Yankees-Braves-game.html

Google balcony safety and you will see lots of pictures. Here's one link to preventive devices.
http://www.arquigrafico.net/make-a-balcony-safe-for-children-with-transparent-balcony-safe-nets/

In Singapore I have lived in and visited several buildings with balconies. Most houses and blocks of flats have balconies, often two balconies, one at the front where you sit and look out. The other at the back for your drying rack for drying clothes.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3215536/Youngest-actor-play-Les-Miserables-s-Jean-Valjean-Broadway-dies-age-21.html

I looked up the rules for designing fire escapes. Here they are
http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Stairs
The rules cover the height of the steps, the maximum and minimum number of steps, the length of flight of steps allowed, the number of handrails, preventing clothing getting caught on the end of the handrail etc.

For relief from all this bad news and serious stuff, look at my travel blog posts and books of comic poetry and my humorous short stories and novels.
Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, travel writer, author, speaker.

Survival SOS in Australia

SOS message saves lost swimmer seeking waterfall.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-34037852

Plane Accident at Shoreham near Brighton, August 2015. Safety, causes, precautions and prevention

Shoreham is eight miles from Brighton in southern England. Left, west as you drive/look south. Maps from sea on Google seem to show Shoreham in East of Brighton.

Initial reports said there were an estimated 11 dead. It is thought that the numbers may rise to twenty.

The 1952 accident at Farnborough killed many spectators and led to the ruling that planes could not do stunts above watching crowds.

I have read through several news accounts and numerous comments. I am not an expert, and have not had time to cross-check all facts, but to save myself time re-reading, I am recording and sharing with you the suggestions I have seen so far which suggest facts which could be checked.

1 Suggested possible accident causes:
pilot error,
plane malfunctions,
birds,
pilot's age or health (for example: blackout/stroke),
cross-winds,
flying too low,
unable to fly higher because of changed routes of planes from Gatwick.

2 Dangers:
flying over crowds,
flying near roads,
flying old planes/vehicles,
older pilots,
distracting road users.

3 Arguments for action and comparisons:
Stunts/ air shows take place over sea at: Bournemouth, Lowestoft.

4 Arguments against action:  
Pilots know the risk.
Spectators choose to watch and stand nearby.
You cannot legislate for health and safety because life is risky.
You would not want to ban all travel and entertainment.
More people die on the roads.

5 Arguments that Health and safety is inadequate.
Arguments that health and safety rules are applied unevenly (some argue that therefore rules should be tighter, or applied to cases where more serious dangers occur).

5 Arguments that few fatalities occur:
Last major incident was 1952.

6 Arguments that many, too many similar accidents occur.
Soem accidents kill pilots but not pedestrians.
Recent (2015) accidents in UK and Switzerland.

7 Arguments for two pilots.

8 Claim that the plane was a one-seater plane so two pilots impossible (unless you adapted the plane).

9 Questions as to why pilot did not bale out?
He was trying to right the plane either, to save others, by instinct.

10 How did the pilot survive the fireball?
The plane split, separating the pilot at the front from the petrol tank at the back.
Planes are designed to split like this to save the pilot.
Question: why was the plane carrying so much  fuel?

11 Who risked their lives to pull out the pilot?
The emergency services.
The fireball was the rear of the plane which was detached and in another area.

12 Objections to people tweeting about traffic delays instead of sympathising with deaths.
(But relatives of missing would be relieved to hear their loved ones might not have died but simply be held up. Drivers and passengers are entitled to know the cause of the traffic delay and how long they will be stuck. Other people are obliged to explain why they are late or missing, and entitled to know so they can plan meals and toilet stops or re-route their journey - and keep out of the way to not delay emergency vehicles and other traffic.)

13 Objections to those red arrowing messages of sympathy.
Responses defending objections to condolences on news pages are that 19 pages of condolences are too much for people to read in a newspaper. Condolences and first person personal reaction messages such as (I cried over my coffee when I read this news report) belong on Facebook on privacy sections for your family. It might be useful to know that local schoolchildren are upset, or that memorial services are being held. But repeated condolences merely echoing others fill the comments pages. (Better to simply click to show numbers agreeing would be sufficient).

Repeats distract from useful news. Condolences take up so much space that the newspaper moderators use up their time allowance and close the site. The result is that readers are unable to add useful updates from elsewhere such as recovery or demise of victims, names of those involved, or accident statistics from similar events, information on traffic diversions and places to phone about the missing.

1952, Farnborough, England. 31 died. Aircraft de Havilland.
Aug 23 2015. Shoreham, near Brighton, England. Aircraft Hawker Hunter from 1950s.

For information on missing relatives call 101 or 01273 470101.
To supply images, email images to 
shoreham.aircrash2015@sussex.pnn.police.uk 

For more information on Shoreham plane accident go to:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3208226/Shoreham-airshow-plane-crash-disaster-did-pilot-run-sky.html#comments

I don't know about accidents to bystanders, but another article suggests that as many as 11 pilots have died since 2000, including one last month.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3208409/Calls-air-safety-rules-reviewed-police-warn-death-toll-Shoreham-crash-disaster-rise.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/shoreham-plane-crash-airshows-may-face-safety-restrictions-after-regulator-promises-review-10468474.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/shoreham-plane-crash-police-plea-over-graphic-images-of-air-show-accident-10468118.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-34038479
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34032142 Previous UK air crashes.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/23/shoreham-air-show-crash-first-three-victims-named

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/11818191/Plane-crashes-at-Shoreham-Air-Show-Live.html

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Shoreham-by-Sea,+West+Sussex/@50.8375902,-0.2736546,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4875909d813fd7e7:0x9e685269ab8c33c2 (Google map of Shoreham and its proximity to Brighton.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoreham-by-Sea
http://www.shorehamairshow.co.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author.

Problem: baby in car; solutions

How do you remember a baby in the back seat of a car? Some poppa say take off your shoes. Others say it's illegal. (Also danger to your feet.)

So put a spare pair of shoes on the front seat. Another suggestion is tie elastic from the baby seat to your car door so you can't exit without a reminder to check baby.

Better still, always check both the front and back of your car before leaving, so ensure you have not left any kind of valuables, your laptop, your baby, your coat, your sunglasses, an empty bag or jacket which could attract a thief, a child which could attract a predator, a dog which could escape and release the handbrake.

Washington Post ran an article called Fatal Distraction

Angela Lansbury, author and speaker.

Preventing Suicide

We all bring out own perspectives to whatever we read in the news. In a BBC article about an orthodox Jewish lad I read about a suicide and see a pattern. The pattern can be:

A person obviously depressed, symptoms including saying they are depressed, comfort eating, or suicide attempts. (Or being in a depressing situation, losing a limb, losing sight or hearing or mobility, being bereaved, classic situations of stress: exams, leaving home, moving house, relatives leave home, divorce, ridicule.

Yet others manage to survive using their entire family, being isolated from family. The classic survival stories I think of are first in time Dreyfus, kept alone in a cell on a remote island and not even allowed to speak to the guards. I have his book - compiled using his accounts written later in his life.

Second in time is the man who survived a concentration camp and focused on the face of his wife to give himself the energy to walk on.

Many relatives, close friends, even strangers, start asking questions and seeking answers. I feel it's better to know the facts straight away than be left wondering for the rest of your life. Health and safety devices enable us to reach the age of seventy and stay fit when our grandparents died in their fifties or were bedridden helped by then members of the extended family. All health and safety devices were devised by somebody. Either a family member who experienced a problem and looked for an answer, or a stranger reading about an incident, or a company compiling statistics on causes of death. I'll write this up on my blog.

A person commits suicide because they are tired, physically low, on drugs, have access to an open window in a high building, can jump over a ledge.

What prevents or stops suicide? I previously read the sites of the Samaritans and found that many people had once or twice felt like committing suicide and were saved (in one or two cases by people who prevented them from jumping off bridges or ledges or the rescuer dived into water and saved them). The saved person went on to live long (so far) happy and productive lives.

Let's look at prevention. Factors include being in a supportive community.

The decision not to commit suicide because

1 God forbids it.
The book of Job deals with loss.
2 However bad I feel, I would feel worse if my parents or children committed suicide so I cannot add to their problems by doing this to them.
3 Life has ups and downs. Just wait and it will pass. (After sleepless nights with a newborn baby, and pain from cutting and stitches and infections, I kept telling myself, just wait a year and a day and today's problems will pass away.
4 Reading back my own diaries and lists of to do, it's amazing how problems and tasks which were major at the time have come and gone. I passed the 11+, O level, A level, University degree, bought a house, sold a flat, took train and bus journeys, reached destinations, published books, grew an apple tree (although other plants died), fixed central heating, replaced a lost passport, replaced a lost phone, got rid of mould, shortened curtains, sold cars which were letting me down, bought a car in the colour I was seeking, got dressed for the day quickly.

The Samaritans in the UK, other organisations in the USA and Israel.

Angela Lansbury

Cause of death - and prevention - Cilla Black story

After reading an article on Cilla Black's death, I found several comments which echoed my thoughts.

1 Did she die from the blow to her head after falling due to a stroke, or did she fall and have a stroke as a result. Which was cause and which was effect?
2 Why did she not have live in help?
3 Why did she not have a call system?

I wondered whether she should have had live in help. My late grandmother had a lodger after she was widowed. Ostensibly this was to help pay the rent. But a secondary motive was that she had heart trouble and she and the family wanted somebody there to summon help if she was ill or discover if she died.

Why not an alarm around Cilla's neck? One comment said that you can use these only if you are near a monitoring station. I would have thought somebody could devise a system which simply activates your phone to call your family.

Guilt and Questions
Several people said you should leave the family to grieve and not speculate. But what happens after somebody dies? All your family and aquaintances' first questions are: when did it happen, how did it happen, who was there?

Why do we ask? Sometimes sheer curiosity. A healthy trait.

Most people either consciously or subconsciously seek out questions to health and safety and death as a means of self preservation. How can I prevent this sort of event hitting me and those I love or those whose safety is my responsibility? For many people, responsibility extends to everybody. If I read that somebody has died in a car accident, and I think of a system which could prevent this happening again, I want to tell the world about the solution or ask the world to find one.

Many relatives, close friends, even strangers, start asking questions and seeking answers. I feel it's better to know the facts straight away than be left wondering for the rest of your life. Health and safety devices enable us to reach the age of seventy and stay fit when our grandparents died in their fifties or were bedridden helped by then members of the extended family. All health and safety devices were devised by somebody. Either a family member who experienced a problem and looked for an answer, or a stranger reading about an incident, or a company compiling statistics on causes of death.

I still go over my parents' and uncle's death many times a week, trying to work our the exact causes and what could prevent the same happening again. Many conditions are inherited. If my father had late onset diabetes, maybe I should be altering my diet to preserve my eyesight etc etc.

Many people inherit the family's property and live in it. If granny tripped over a rug, maybe when you inherit her priority or rent it out you should install fitted carpets.

Carpets up the wall in the seventies protected my parents when they fell in the bathroom. I recall my mother phoning me to say my father had fallen in the bath or shower. She was worried that the same might happen to me, living elsewhere.

I keep looking at wet rooms with their hard floors and thinking, nowhere soft to fall. I have brittle bones. I like the old carpeted bathrooms and walls.

I also like soft sided bed bases. I broke a toe falling over. I have hit my toes against objects. Tripped over a floor exercise your toes machine. Look for trip hazards.

Anything hard on the ground and anything not protected could hurt you if you stumble into or fall against it. So I like a towel hanging on a heated towel rail or on a rack in front of a hard radiator (not a towel on a heater which could start a fire).

Commentators say: Don't make the family feel guilty. Don't keep investigating. I would rather prevent it happening again to myself, your family or anybody else.

What would I like to see in place for an elderly relative?

1 An alarm system
One which works anywhere, no maintenance cost, only the cost of buying it in the first place.

2 A twice a day call system.
I always phone my parents at least twice a day. Once early on - to be sure they'd survived the night and were well. I didn't say so. My pretext was I was just telling them my movements for the day. If I went out, morning, afternoon, or evening, I would phone on the pretext of telling them I was back home if they had anything to say. Then I would phone in the evening to tell them what time I was going to bed and to find out what time they were going to bed on the pretext of telling them how late they could call me without disturbing me.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker. If you have time now, read my travel posts and check out my books on Lulu.com . If you don't have time now, make a mental note to do so later in the day or week. 

At last somebody has come up with warnings. The Russians have designed don't do it warnings. Don't pose with loaded guns. (Don't pose with unloaded guns.)

On a film set, get a stunt double to do it, show the hand with the gun pointing away from them, the person without it, just their eyes, or the target. Photoshop the picture instead of having the actor with the gun.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3153192/Don-t-selfies-gun-standing-lion-Russian-issues-guidelines-people-dozens-die-taking-self-portraits-year-alone.html#comments

If you'd rather read some jolly stuff next, go to my travel blog.

Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer, speaker.

Fireworks - keep away

One man in the USA died after firing a firework from his chest. Another man died after firing a firework from his head.

The name of the product, Medieval Knight, strikes me as good marketing but bad NLP for safety. It tells the buyer, you are a medieval knight. But the buyer is not wearing armour. He should not be going into battle holding the weapon.

A better name would be: Stand Away From This Rocket. Or, Only A Sober Person Should Light this; or, Dangerous Rocket First read instructions.  Stand Back - awesome firework.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3153039/Postal-worker-30-dies-setting-firework-CHEST.html#readerCommentsCommand-message-field

http://news.yahoo.com/police-man-shoots-off-firework-top-head-dies-135937499.html

Neighbourhood Watch

It would be an idea for neighbours to look out for each other. If you hear loud screams phone up and politely ask, 'Are you OK?'

Or call Neighbourhood Watch rep to walk past and phone. If silence follows and no reply or somebody else answers and the person who screamed cannot come to the phone the officials can then alert somebody to do a welfare check.

In the UK the number 999 is used for emergencies. 111 is for less serious events. 

Dangers of re-using food and drink bottles without labelling contents as poisonous

A man in Spain died after drinking what looked like wine.
I never throw back a full glass of wine. Take a tiny sip first. You usually sniff wine to get the aroma. As for decanted wine - I ask what kind of wine it is - I ask to see the bottle.

Not the first time a decanted poison or re-used bottle have caused trouble.

A child in a restaurant drank what looked like water poured from a water jug. The cleaner had emptied cleaning liquid from a large heavy bottle into a small water jug. Somebody else picked up the jug and put it on a table.

Another instance was a wine or whisky bottle found in a daed man's garage. It was donated to a raffle. The winning couple drank from the bottle. One died and the other went blind.

I once drank coffee maker cleaner which was in a glass or jug. I went to hospital, after asking the local pharmacist what to do.

How can you prevent this kind of accident?

1 Never put poisons in a jar labelled with a food or drink label. Remove the label first.
2 Always re-label the bottle with POISON and the substance.
3 Store all poisons in the cleaning cupboard.
4 Manufacturers of food and drink should have a label saying if re-using this jar/bottle - all food/drink label to be removed; poisonous substances must be labelled poison; must stored in cupboard of cleaning materials and clearly marked poison not for drinking or eating.
Large bottles of poison should be labelled with warning about not decanting.
5 Warning signs should be printed and displayed in kitchens. Three warnings: one on board, one on drinks cupboard, one for cleaning materials cupboard, plus notification of the Act and the large Fine.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3126310/Drinker-dies-burns-windpipe-stomach-Spanish-cafe-accidentally-serves-detergent-stored-white-wine-bottle.html

A fire in a house in the USA apparently started in the downstairs kitchen and claimed the lives of several children who were upstairs at the back of the house. Eventually the mother and eldest sister escaped through the front windows, suffering injuries.

Some commentators said they were mothers and would rather die with their children than leave them. But the mother was not with them and could not reach them.

In many fires and accidents a parent or older person is lost trying to help the younger ones, All they do is die and endanger other rescuers.

The sacrificial parent leaves behind other grieving children and a spouse who has no emotional support and companionship (and nobody with whom to fight for compensation, start a fund or campaign in the dead children's memory, and nobody with whom to start another family.

Sounds like the mother's and older sister's mistake was trying to reach the younger children, everybody trying to reach others across the staircase filled with smoke and hot air.

Eventually the mother and older daughter realised they had to escape through the window. But maybe the younger children were still screaming from the inner door or already overcome by smoke.

Admittedly, the first thought is to descend the staircase, or reach another inside room. It's true you are likely to break bones or kill yourself jumping from a high window onto concrete or packed snow.  Should everybody have a fire drill plan. Supposing the mother had died or collapsed in an accident. What would the children have done?

The solution, maybe is to use sheets to construct escape descending at least some distance before letting go, hanging onto the ledge with your hands so your feet are at least one to three feet below the ledge, rather than leaping from a ledge with your feet starting at that height.

Instead of opening doors and calling to each other, according to most hotel instructions, you keep the door shut and block the airway under the door with fabric so you keep out the hot air, don't fan the flames with a draught when opening the window, and keep out smoke.

You then open the window to shout for help and throw out pillows, clothes, bedding, blankets, even a mattress if it won't block the window, for a soft landing. Neighbours have to get into the back garden over the fence using a ladder, use a ladder to reach up to the window, or let you descend, or even break your fall with a ladder forming a slide.

All this required planning. An older child can let a younger one (weighing lighter) dangle and thus fall a lesser distance. In theory two children could form a bridge another could slide down. A baby wrapped in pyjamas attached to a sheet could be lowered into the outstretched arms of a tall person below.

Another way is to break the fall.

without  or mattresses and pillows thrown to the ground. Mother correctly got out to call for ladders, fire brigade, and be there for oldest daughter and father. Comment on buying indoor escape ladder, $37? Cheaper than I'd thought! All upstairs bedrooms should have one. Make buildings stepped. No concrete under windows. Put soft earth, flower beds and soft bushes and awnings under upper windows to break and dampen fall.

A gong or bell in a bedroom could be used to summon help. A mobile phone in a bedroom could be used to call the fire brigade. All this requires some planning.

Look before you leap - opening doors

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2876517/Safety-inspector-died-walked-Oxo-factory-fell-13ft-gravy-making-machine.html

Spiked railings - would health and safety allow them? No.

Scot Young, multi-millionaire in the middle of a divorce, with debt and depression fell, jumped or was pushed out of upper floor onto railings and died.

Different people would like to take one item out of this list to try, with the butterfly effect, to change the whole course of history with one small change.

Some say the love of money is the root of all evil. Some say, stick to your spouse, for your own sake, that of your spouse, and for the sake or your children, because divorce is one of the major traumas in life. Another is moving house, and one person often has to move house after a divorce, sometimes both.

Others say, don't get into debt. Neither a borrower or a lender be. First you lose the friendship of the lender. Next you borrow from Peter to pay Paul. The debt grows. You create an enemy to save a friendship.

Others say the problem is depression. The cure is self-help. Avoid drugs. Put more government money into cures. Work for mental help charity.

Others say block up high windows and make them non-opening. As is done in skyscrapers in San Francisco. You cannot jump to safety from top floors. Windows are only helpful if you have a fire escape. So New York after a fire made the law that every building must have a fire exit opening out and a fire escape from higher floors.

In times of Troubles, VIPs who may be targets are told to vary their routine so watchers cannot be sure that you always step outside your door at a certain time and take the same route to a known destination.

Looking back at the situation of Scot and the photo of the railings he fell onto, my reaction is to add to the list of cautions, get rid of those spikes on railings.

Get rid of those dangerous spiky railings. They are designed to kill someone and the people living or working in the building are always nearest. Accident waiting to happen.

If you want to be alerted to intruders, get bells, alarms and cameras. Electric shocks which alarm but don't kill. I am safety minded. I liked Habitat, designed in step formation. In a disaster, fire or flood, you are only one floor away from safety.