Health and Safety Management Accident Prevention

HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT
ACCIDENT PREVENTION
SADONDO P.
INTRODUCTION
• Accidents are an inconvenience

• They cause injuries, disability and even death
• They interfere with production
• They damage equipment
• Lost time
• To the worker, accidents bring pain and suffering to him and his family
• When accidents result in permanent disabilty, the victim loses the earning capacity
• In general, workplace accidents affect the economy of the country
DEFINITION OF TERMS
• Accident: an unplanned and uncontrolled event which causes loss in the form of
injury, death, property damage, production interruption or all of these
• Incident: an undesired event that could downgrade the efficiency of a business
operation (it includes accidents and near misses)
• Near miss:
• Hazard: a potential source of danger
• Danger: relative exposure to a hazard
CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS
• A combination of factors which are simultaneoulsy present

• A potentially unsafe situation does not give rise to an accident until someone is
exposed to it. For example, a cloud of a flammable vapour cannot explode until there
is some means of ignition
• Therefore two main factors cause accidents;
a. Unsafe acts or practices. Human element resulting from attitude, physical condition, lack of
knowledge or skills to enable one to work safely.
b. Unsafe conditions of equipment or materials
EXAMPLES
UNSAFE CONDITIONS UNSAFE CONDITIONS

• Loose clothing • Poor housekeeping
• Overcrowding • Inadequate lighting
• Overloading • Inadequate ventilation
• Repairing equipment in motion • Missing guards
• Non-use of PPE • Slippery or broken floors
• Unfit for duty, drunk • Fire equipment obstructed
• Working at unsafe speed • Excessive noise
ACCIDENT PREVENTION THEORIES
HEINRICH’S ACCIDENT RATIO STUDY

1
• In 1931 Heinrich after studying several Minor Injury
thousand accidents that there was a
definite ratio of major, serious and
minor injuries 29
Minor Injury
• Main point was that the proper way to
avoid serious accidents was to tackle
the minor accidents 300
Near-miss Incidents
ACCIDENT PREVENTION THEORIES
FRANK BIRD ACCIDENT RATIO STUDY 1
(1969) Serious
accident
• Frank Bird measured 1 700 000
10
accidents
Minor Injury
• Extended Hienrich’s theory
• He showed that accident ratio of 1 30 PD
serious to 10 minor injuries to 30
property damage to 600 near-misses 600
ratio will vary from industry to Near-miss Incidents
industry
DOMINO SEQUENCE THEORY
• States that an accident is a culmination of a series of events i.e;

– Lack of management control triggers personal factors
– Personal factors trigger unsafe acts and conditions
– Unsafe acts and conditions culminate in accidents
– Accidents give rise to injury and other losses
– Prevention of accidents based on any of preceding factors
Loss
DOMINO SEQUENCE IN ACCIDENT CAUSATION
Injury / damage
Incident / accident
Immediate causes
Basic causes
Lack of management controls
ICEBERG THEORY
• Breaks costs of accidents into insured and hidden costs

• Puts ratio of insured costs to hidden costs at 1:5 and recommends that equal
attention be given to hidden costs
• Tip of an iceberg concept
ANALYSIS OF CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS
• Accurate analysis has proved the following ratio, which conforms closely to Zimbabwe;
– 88 % are caused by the unsafe acts of persons
– 10% are caused by unsafe mechanical or physical conditions
– 2% are unpreventable
• Majority of accidents do not just happen, they are caused by people who perform
unsafe acts and create unsafe conditions, therefore they are preventable
ACCIDENTS PREVENTION TECHNIQUES
• Engineering
• Education
• Enforcement
• Enthusiasm cultivation
• Example setting
ENGINEERING
• Engineering out hazards through:

– Anticipating hazards and eliminating them at design stage
Provision of a Safe Plant/Safe Working Condition
• Through proper designing of the plant by provision of:
– Adequate lighting
– Adequate ventilation
– Fire protection
– Securely guarded machines/equipment
– Safe jobs procedures - no short cuts
ENGINEERING
• Maintenance of Plant/Machinery/Equipment and Safe Work Practices By:

– Safety inspections - to identify and eliminate or control unsafe conditions and control unsafe
practices
– Environmental surveys to assess and control environmental stressors like noise, light, dust etc
– Carrying our repairs for damaged machines
– Fire prevention programme - to eliminate and control fire hazards
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
• Training begins the day the employee goes to work that is:
– Induction training for new workers
– On-the-job safety training for all workers
– Formal safety training for supervisors and workers
– Refreshers like safety drills/demonstrations
– Safety training courses like Safety Reps Training
ENFORCEMENT
• Know and religiously follow the rules

• Management should take firm action when there is infringement
• Other measures that could be enforced;
– Pre-employment medicals
– Periodical medical examinations
ENTHUSIASM CULTIVATION
• Is about arousing safety interest through;

– Selling benefits of accident prevention
– Making job less stressful
– Introducing incentives for safety achievements
– Involving and allowing workers to participate in safety decisions
– Recognising safe behaviour
EXAMPLE SETTING
• Important as subordinates look at bosses as role models

• Demonstrated through SHE Policy formulation and implementation
• Seen through visible safety attitude and culture of bosses
• Demonstrated when the bosses walk the talk
• Seen through allocation of resources for safety
EFFECTS OF ACCIDENTS
• Injury or death • Cause high labour turnover

• Pain and suffering the the victim and • Affect profits
dependents • Tarnish cooperate image
• Affect productivity • Negatively affect exports
• Dampen workers’ morale and affect • Attract litigation
workers - management relations
• Increase insurance costs
BENEFITS OF ACCIDENT PREVENTION
• Conservation of health, life and property

• Increased productivity and cuts operational costs, hence profits
• Improved workers morale and workers-management relations
• Good company image

Health and Safety Management Accident Prevention

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HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT

• Accidents are an inconvenience

• A combination of factors which are simultaneoulsy present

UNSAFE CONDITIONS UNSAFE CONDITIONS

HEINRICH’S ACCIDENT RATIO STUDY

FRANK BIRD ACCIDENT RATIO STUDY 1

• States that an accident is a culmination of a series of events i.e;

• Breaks costs of accidents into insured and hidden costs

• Engineering out hazards through:

• Maintenance of Plant/Machinery/Equipment and Safe Work Practices By:

• Know and religiously follow the rules

• Is about arousing safety interest through;

• Important as subordinates look at bosses as role models

• Injury or death • Cause high labour turnover

• Conservation of health, life and property

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