On a recent workday, Anthony Brunet strapped to his boots a pair of coverings to increase — yes, increase — his chances of slipping on a nearby tile floor.

But all you safety specialists can rest easy.

The warehouse worker at Fermi 2, a USA fleet member, then donned a harness with a strap attached to an I-beam with a 600-pound load capacity. Brunet then walked out onto the floor. He walked in small, guarded steps, shifting his body weight constantly to remain upright.

“It felt like I was walking on ice,” Brunet said after a walk through the slips, trips and falls simulator owned by DTE Energy, which operates Fermi 2. “I could feel it was slippery; I had to try hard not to slip.”

The simulator, housed in a portable trailer, is part of a training program at the company aimed at decreasing injuries resulting from slips, trips and falls.

It is an important initiative because at DTE Energy — and many other companies — slipping, tripping and falling is the leading cause of employee injuries.

DTE started the program after hearing success stories from other companies, such as UPS and Fedex, who used similar programs to significantly reduce injuries. Those efforts and other studies helped prove that people can be trained to minimize slippage to prevent injury.

The simulator made a recent stop at Fermi 2 for two days; dozens of employees participated in an hour of classroom time, followed by a turn in the simulator.

Philip Mularski, a training specialist at DTE Energy who led the class, explained the basics of slips, trips and falls, including the official definitions and the countless ways they can lead to injury.

Mularski said starting from our first steps as babies, we train ourselves how to avoid falling. Each fall is registered in our brain, “and we never fall the same way again,” he said.

What the simulator and classroom work do is “retrain our brain,” Mularski said. He made several suggestions on how to do that: keep your eyes on the path, slow down, wear the correct footwear, change walking habits based on conditions and, when possible, eliminate hazards.

“We need to practice this at home and at work,” Mularski said.

Kathleen Beaudrie, who works in Fermi 2’s warehouse group, is a self-described cautious walker.

During her time on the simulator, it showed: she walked slowly, often bracing herself on the simulator wall.

But it still proved difficult. At one point, when carrying a box and stepping over an obstacle, Beaudrie stopped, smiled and shook her head.

“This isn’t easy,” she said.

But it was effective.

Beaudrie and Brunet both said the classroom work and simulator helped focus their resolve on protecting against slips, trips and falls.

“It really highlighted the consequences, how it could affect my family, my job and my life overall,” Brunet said.

“You immediately look at things a lot differently,” Brunet said while standing on a sidewalk outside the simulator. “I’m looking around at all these cracks and recognizing all the tripping hazards.”

Anthony Brunet makes his way through the slips, trips and falls simulator at Fermi 2.