Location: Montana, USA.

The backstory/situation

As the title suggests, I had a slip and fall two days ago resulting in a concussion, whiplash, significant bruising along my hip and back, and a laceration to the back of my head. This happened while while walking across the parking lot on a paid break. This happens every year to someone (I've worked there 5 years), and upper management refuses to get anything done about the parking lot situation.

I had to pry the workman's comp info out of them to get anything done. Took the two following days off at my doctor's recommendation, and workplace is now scolding me for not utilizing the little sandwich bags of sand they have at the front door for icy conditions.

My coworker texted me today and said there were two more slip and falls as a result of failure to de-ice the parking lot.

Weather conditions causing the ice are occurring at night, with the ice being present when people are clocking in. So presumably they could hire someone to be de-icing the asphalt before people arrive to clock-in.

My questions are

- Sandwich bags of sand handed to employees that cover maybe 2-4 sqft of asphalt are not a sufficient or effective means of de-icing a 40 x 30 sqft parking lot, presumably if someone were to break a hip or end up with a traumatic brain injury in their parking lot the company could be sued yes?

- Would refusing to address a known hazardous condition even though numerous employees have been hurt as a result would be negligence on their part? I feel like this is a stupid question, but as a reasonably sized local business you'd think they'd know this or be more proactive in preventing workplace injuries.

-Is this something I should just report to OSHA since my interest is protecting everyone rather than suing?

Lastly, I wouldn't be on here griping about this if it was a one-off incident. Crap happens, but this is every. single. year. And every year they shift the blame and scold us for not throwing sand like chicken scratch across the parking lot if we walk to our cars and it's icy out.

Additionally, we have some very frail/elderly coworkers, people who you know, should really not be falling on asphalt. Some of them don't even have the shoulder mobility or balance to be flinging sand around in an icy parking lot.

Any input would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.