Why Parking Lot Safety Must Be Part of Your Violence Prevention Plan
Is parking lot safety part of your workplace violence prevention plan?
It should be.
Both as part of your assessment process for workplace violence safety hazards, and as part of your employee training in strategies to avoid physical harm from workplace violence.
According to the FBI, parking areas are one of the most common places where violence occurs. It’s often the top safety concern of employees when I poll them during workplace violence prevention trainings.
Yet, few employers think about the safety hazards these parking locations present to their employees. And not just for employees, but for customers, clients, patients, and vendors too.
And the risk of violence is not just from strangers, as 20% of the victims of violence that occur in parking areas know their attacker.
In this piece, you’ll learn about the safety challenges presented by parking areas, and what to consider as part of assessing your parking areas for workplace violence safety hazards, and to consider when training employees in strategies to avoid physical harm.
I learned first hand about the devastating effects of violence, how it occurs, and how it can be prevented, through 30 years of conducting civil and criminal litigations investigations into violent incident for attorneys, and while conducting internal fact-finding investigations for employers regarding workplace violence, threats, and harassment.
California’s new workplace violence prevention law goes into effect on July 1. It covers the vast majority of employers, employees, and workplaces. My free California workplace violence prevention checklist can help you get started on your prevention plan. Download it here.
Parking Area Safety Hazards
When it comes to creating workplace violence safety hazards, parking areas are something of a perfect storm. Some of these factors making parking areas dangerous are related to the physical environment, and others are due to the people within that environment.
Once you’ve identified employee safety hazards that arise from the parking areas, you’ll need to consider approaches to remedy those risks, such as physical improvements, employee parking lot safety training, and most likely a combination of the two.
Factors that make parking areas safety risks include:
- Parking areas are isolating because they serve as pass thru to get to somewhere else.
- Parking areas have limited visibility due to parked vehicles, walls, columns, and people.
- Parking areas limit pedestrian movement in favor of vehicle movement.
- Parking areas provide hiding places for assailants.
- Parking areas allow access from the public, especially to those on foot.
- Parking areas limit ingress and egress, making threat avoidance more difficult.
- Parking areas can have limited lighting making it harder to see safety hazards.
- Parking areas make it easier for assailants to target an employee.
Assessing Safety Hazards
Parking areas safety is often treated as an after thought since they exist for convenience to a destination rather than as a destination themselves. The best way to conduct an assessment for safety hazards is to walk through, and drive through the parking areas as your employees would. Take notes, photos and video of the specific safety hazards you notice.
Parking Areas Are Isolating By Function
At a minimum, your employees will be in the parking lot twice a day. Upon arrival, and at the end of the workday. Those that leave for lunch, or for other purposes, may enter and leave a couple of more times each day.
Parking areas are meant for people to spend little time in them. Drive up. Exit your car. Walk to the destination. And the same for when they leave. The brevity of time in the lot itself, increases the level of isolation, as there are few people there at any given time.
As you assess your parking areas, think about the extent to which they isolate people, and if so for how long. And whether that isolation increases employee vulnerability to safety hazards. And consider whether incorporating the buddy system, or an employee escort at certain times of day will reduce the safety risks from the way parking lots isolate employees.
Parking Areas Limit Visibility
In a parking area there are moving and stationary vehicles, dumpsters, light posts, partial walls, and columns all of which can limit visibility, make it easier for someone to approach your employees unseen.
To best assess whether the limited visibility increases safety risks, it’s best to walk through the lot while on foot, drive through the lot to determine if visibility limits also effect those driving through the lot, and view the parking lot from a car parked in a parking space too.
Parking Areas Limit Pedestrian Movement
Parking areas are designed for vehicle traffic rather than foot traffic. Depending upon the number of employees parking in the lot, they may park close to the building, or they may have to park further away, and then walk through the parking lot to approach the entrance.
In terms of avoiding safety hazards, such as someone laying in wait, the safest place to walk in a parking area, is right down the middle of the vehicle traffic lane. Which works if there is little vehicle traffic.
But, if there’s vehicle traffic that won’t work.
Vehicle traffic in the parking area forces pedestrians to walk along more restrictive pathways. Putting them closer to places that can provide cover to an attacker. They may also have to weave through parked cars making it harder to detect an attacker’s presence, and to be visible to other people on foot or in cars.
To assess the safety hazards from this restricted movement, walk the parking lot in the same ways that your employees do when they arrive and when they leave. Take note of places where an attacker can hide and where parked vehicles alter pedestrian movement.
Parking Areas Create Hiding Places for An Assailant
The same elements within a parking area that limit visibility also create hiding places for an assailant to attack from. This can impact employee safety, especially when it comes to domestic violence related workplace violence. Parking lots are more accessible to the public than a building. And an assailant who knows where an employee (or employer) parks can easily find places to lay in wait using the previously discussed obstructions to hide. Even the corner of a building next to the parking area can create a hiding place for an attacker.
To assess whether your parking area creates such hazards requires walking the parking lot in the same directions and route that employees take when they arrive at work and when they depart. Observe the positions of parked vehicles, and any obstructions large enough for a person to use as a hiding place.
Parking Areas Allow Access to the Public, Especially on Foot
Although there are different levels of public access to employee parking areas, ranging from lots where anyone working or visiting the location parks in the same place so anyone can enter, to lots having gated entry. Most any parking area is publicly accessible on foot.
I know. I’ve served many court papers in parking areas that were supposedly secure. In fact, it never was challenging for me to enter the parking areas at all.
When you assess the parking area for public accessibility, ask yourself In what ways can the public enter the employee parking area?
If it’s a fully open lot, your best strategy to help your employees avoid physical harm is to provide training in parking lot safety. It’s still a very good idea to conduct parking lot safety training even if your employee lots are not used by the public.
If the employee parking lot is separate from where the public parks, look for access points for people on foot. Can they enter from a sidewalk, through the driveway, or even by climbing a fence. Adjust your thought process to reflect an understanding of when there’s a will there’s a way.
Parking Areas Can Create Bottlenecks by Limiting Ingress and Egress
Some parking areas, especially parking garages and parking lots with perimeter fencing limit ingress and egress access points. In doing so, they create a bottleneck that can become a safety hazard for your employees.
Bottlenecks slow down movement, and anytime your employees’ ability to exit quickly and safely should the need arise becomes a violence safety hazard.
And this type of bottleneck allows an assailant to position himself near the bottleneck point making it easier to get to your employee.
Review points of ingress and egress in the parking area, and determine if they create the potential for a bottleneck. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to change the physical layout that causes the bottleneck, so you’ll likely want to incorporate safety strategies that teach employees how to safely navigate these bottlenecks.
Parking Areas Can Have Limited Lighting Making it Harder to See Safety Hazards
Depending upon employee schedules, they may use the parking areas during night time or early morning light low hours where limited lighting can make it harder to observe safety hazards. The same situation can occur for those employees who park in parking garages regardless of the time of day.
Assessing the light in the parking areas may need to be done at different times of the year and at different hours of the day in order to get a true sense of whether the lighting is insufficient from a safety perspective.
Once assessed, you can determine if the lighting needs to be increased or upgraded if you are responsible for them. While that can be an expensive process, it’s a straight forward approach. And it’s a proven safety enhancer.
If lighting can’t be addressed easily, parking area safety training can incorporate how to safely navigate through low light areas.
Parking Areas Can Make It Easier for An Assailant to Locate Employees (or Employers) at a Known Time
When it comes to domestic violence related workplace violence, and to invitee (client, customer, patient, vendor) related workplace, parking areas provide a fixed location, at a known time, for an assailant to locate an employee (or employer).
This type of safety hazard is best addressed through parking area safety training, and by incorporating the buddy system, as it can’t be addressed through physical infrastructure remedies.
Have questions about your workplace violence prevention program, send me an email and we can discuss where you are at in developing your program.
