Stair safety: Bottom of flight illusion

Abstract

Falls near the bottom of a flight of stairs have resulted from an illusion that the person was stepping off onto the bottom landing when the person was still two treads or more above the landing. The illusion is caused by poor lighting and design defects built into the stairway. The poor lighting may be attributed to a building code that allows inadequate lighting near the bottom of external stairs in private residences. The design defect of truncating handrails before they reach the bottom tread may be due to confusion between "guards" and "handrails" and this confusion also appears to be promulgated by building code. © 2012 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.