FORENSIC SAFETY ENGINEERING ASSOCIATES

Dr. Jay Shankman, D.A.C.F.E., C.H.S.P., C.H.C.M, R.P.I.H., C.P.S.M., C.S.H.M.P.

    EXPERT WITNESS

 
Home

 
Home
Litigators
Dr. Shankman Bio
Press Releases
News Updates
 

 

TOLL FREE HOTLINE 1-800-550-7389

Forensic Safety Engineering Associates is a provider of forensic engineering, consulting, and expert testimony to law offices and insurance companies.  Established in 1989 our qualified certified safety experts, covering a multitude of areas of expertise, are available to assist you in technical evaluations, preparation of cases for trial, and expert trial testimony.

Since our establishment seventeen years ago our business philosophy has been to use only highly qualified safety experts who work for us, in our facilities, in order to maintain the highest standards in the safety industry.  Consequently, we never refer your case to freelance experts, whom we would have little control over, like so many litigation consulting firms do in order to make their practices appear larger and more comprehensive. Instead, we believe it is advantageous to our clients to restrict our practice to our in-house safety consultants and those areas of expertise listed below.



MAJOR AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

bulletBuilding Accidents - Commercial/Residential
bulletWrongful Death
bulletSlips/Trips/Falls
bulletConstruction Accidents
bulletFire Incidents
bullet Electrical Accidents
bullet I.C.C. Building Code
bulletDefective Products/ Liability
bulletHospital and Nursing Home Accidents
bulletBurn Victims
bulletPlayground Accidents
bulletSchool Incidents
bullet Chemical Exposure
bullet N.B.C. Decontamination Solutions

In addition, we also provide safety and risk control experts who provide one of the most comprehensive loss control programs in the safety and loss control industry. Our programs are specifically geared toward addressing those  fundamental safety issues facing your business.

OUR SAFETY AND RISK CONTROL SERVICES INCLUDE:

bullet

Property and Liability Surveys

bullet

Accident Investigation Training for Supervisors

bullet

Safety Training for Supervisors

bullet

Loss Prevention/Reduction Programs for Liability and Workers' Compensation

bullet

Loss Prevention/Reduction Programs for Property and Liability

bullet

Chemical, Radiological and Biological Decontamination Preparedness and Solutions

 

Science and Technology Dictionary

In-Depth Failure Analysis, Forensic Investigation

safety engineer (′sāf·tē ′en·jə′nir)

(SAFETY ENGINEERING)  is an applied science strongly related to systems engineering. Safety engineering assures that a life-critical system behaves as needed when failure exists.

(FORENSIC SAFETY ENGINEERING)  The testing and evaluating of equipment, buildings, property, procedures to secure evidence and technically correct failures whether mechanical or human error.

A life-critical system or safety-critical system is a system whose failure or malfunction may result in:

  • death or serious injury to people, or
  • loss or severe damage to equipment or
  • environmental harm.

 

 

“WE ANALIZE ALL WALKING SURFACES WITH THE MOST MODERN DIGITAL SLIPMETER AVAILABLE”


DIGITAL SLIPMETER PERFORMS STATIC COEFFICIENT OF FRICTION TESTING


Accepted Industry Standards
as adopted by Underwriters Laboratory (UL) and the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM):

0.5 COF or above has been traditionally recognized as providing non-hazardous walkway surfaces.

ASTM C1028 for the Horizontal Pull Dynamometer is for factory quality assurance testing of ceramic tile. It is a 50-pound drag weight that is pulled by a hand-held force meter, and the COF number is calculated using the H/V formula. As with all drag sleds, this 50-pound monster is not capable of valid wet testing, nor has a satisfactory precision and bias study ever been completed.

ASTM D2047 is the basis of the testing of floor polishes for slip resistance under laboratory conditions. It involves the venerable James Machine, a leather friction pad, and specifies that all testing must be performed dry. It cannot be used on a floor either, since it is not portable. There are four iterations of the James Machine, and although its proponents in D21 allege that their results are interchangeable, it remains to be seen whether a precision and bias study can substantiate that.

UL410 is an Underwriters Laboratories standard for rating of various materials and surfaces as "slip resistant." Any material or coating can be listed by UL as slip resistant if it achieves an index on .50 or higher on a James Machine with a leather pad. This is the original slip resistance standard and little has been done to upgrade it over the years. Its limitations are similar to D2047.

ASTM C-21 on Ceramic Tile
In a letter ballot from C-21 bearing an issue date of June 20, 1996, a "New Standard Specification for Acceptable Coefficient of Friction of Ceramic Tile for a Walking Surface" (Z6334Z) specified a threshold of safety of .50

ADA VALUES

Values published in the Federal Register on July 26, 1991 as Americans with Disabilities Act Guidelines called for a slip index of .60 on level walkways and .80 for ramps up to a slope of 1:12.

 

 
Dr. Jay Shankman is Court Qualified
   

"LET OUR YEARS OF FORENSIC SAFETY EXPERTISE HELP GUIDE YOU IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION"