 Please Panic Over Means of Egress! By Robert L. Wasserman, CPCU |
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Yes, please do panic over means of egress because failure to do so may be hazardous to your bottom line!
Juries routinely award damages for injury, pain and suffering caused by improperly-safeguarded exits. Risks ranging from day care centers to bowling alleys to apartment houses to health care facilities and others, are all easy prey to such lawsuits and their associated costs...as are their insurers.
One area for potential problems is the lack of so-called "panic hardware" on exit doors. This consists of a waist-level bar that activates the latch-release mechanism, thereby opening the door surely and swiftly in the event of an emergency. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), such hardware must be able to be instantly and easily released and be located at a convenient height above the floor - 30 to 44 inches - and the actuating portion is to extend at least one-half the width of the door leaf.
Panic hardware, as a general rule, is required in day care, educational, assemby and health care occupancies. Local codes often expand the requirement to other types of risks. Some insurers mandate that such equipment be installed in certain risks regardless of either the NFPA or local code requirements, simply as part of their underwriting guidelines or due to plain old common sense.
In these uncertain and litigious times, it behooves underwriters to err on the side of caution. The existence of panic hardware is readily verifiable during an on-site underwriting survey. | |||
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Bob Wasserman is president of TIS and will be contributing articles from time-to-time to "TIS EXPRESS."
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