There's not so many a slip at Ford's
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WHILE ALL motor manufacturers are making their vehicles as "slippery" as possible to improve fuel consumption and performance, Ford at Halewood is doing the opposite with shoes. The occupational health department has been engaged in extensive research to produce safer footwear for the winter by reducing its slippery characteristics.
A frosty morning trebles the number of injuries from slipping and Dr Derek Manning, Ford's senior medical officer at Halewood, has co-ordinated a national study of such accidents. A frame has been built in which researchers in different kinds of footwear are drawn across an ice rink to measure the friction.
Even polar bears are helping the cause of safety. The Canadian Wild Life Association promised a magnified photograph of a bear's foot in the hope that it will reveal how half a ton of big trouble can propel itself at high speed across the ice without falling flat on its nose.