​ Accident Prevention – “The One That Didn’t Happen”

Heinrich’s safety pyramid shows us the different levels of safety incidents, beginning with near misses, and going all the way up to the worst-case scenario, death.

There are many controversial articles on the validity of this pyramid, but for this blog I would ask you to focus only on the base of the pyramid, where accident prevention happens, because everything above the red portion relates to accidents that have already happened.

So, with this in mind let’s first define what an accident is. One definition is:

An unplanned RESULT of an act or event which can be:

•A Fatality

•An Injury

•Property/Product Damage

The bottom of the pyramid represents Hazardous Acts, Hazardous Conditions and Near Misses. These situations can and will often lead to an injury and the word “act” is in both the definition of an incident and in the foundation of the pyramid. Most of the time, accidents are caused by people’s unsafe actions or the hazards their actions create.

Accident prevention really comes down to two things: either the person who had the accident wasn’t aware of the hazards he was exposed to, or he knew there was a hazard and didn’t respond.

Think you always respond appropriately to hazards? You may have near misses more often than you think:

Scenario 1: If I told you to reach into a substance you couldn’t see through and pickup 8 razor blades would you be concerned? You know the hazard, so how would you respond?

This scenario actually happens quite frequently when we wash steak knives in a sink full of soapy water. Most of us don’t think that performing this action would or will lead to an accident, but after reading this blog you might at least think about it in the future. A woman once told me she had cut herself seriously doing just this and now she has her son do the dishes. She makes him put the knife blades down in a plastic glass to prevent him from cutting his hands. When thinking about this in terms of unsafe acts, without using the plastic cup we are putting our hands/fingers in harm’s way and we can’t see what we are doing.

Scenario 2: If I told you that you had an opportunity to navigate in a 3000 lb. missile travelling at 102.667 feet per second blindfolded through an obstacle course while eating, drinking, reading, texting with your little dog on your lap would you do it?

Unfortunately, this scenario happens daily when people drive their cars distracted by any one or more of the distractions listed. Distracted driving is now the #1 cause of driving accidents and deaths.

Scenario 3: After agreeing to help a friend move out of his house, you get to the moving location and are informed that his wife had a library upstairs and the books were all packed. The husband said his wife had all of the books in just 9 boxes - but they weighed 90 lbs. each.

We all know that there are handrails on stairs for a purpose and this type of work could preclude their use, especially with heavy boxes to carry. But lifting, lowering, pushing and pulling heavy boxes can be extremely repetitive and difficult to do without injury if we don’t recognize and respond to the associated hazards.

Some other interesting hazard recognition facts:

• Did you know your lawnmower produces a noise level of almost 100 decibels and table saws run at 110 decibels? Is it better to use hearing protection now or hearing aids later?
• Did you know ordinary bathtub and shower cleaner contains ammonia and acids and can cause eye and skin irritation, swallowing and breathing the vapors can be harmful? Spraying bathtub and shower cleaner in a shower is similar to bringing a hazard into a confined space. Wear rubber gloves and keep the bathroom well ventilated when cleaning.
• Did you know that gasoline has a flash point of -45^o F which means that any source of ignition whether it be a flame or static spark would cause it to ignite at any temperature above -45^o F?
• Did you know that chairs (especially those with wheels) do not make good ladders?
• Did you know that ladders when not set up properly, fall over (especially with people on them)?

The answers to these and hundreds of other questions is yes we do know and for the most part we recognize the hazards we are presented with both on and off the job. But we don’t respond appropriately, usually for reasons of comfort and convenience. It’s more comfortable to not wear ear plugs while mowing the lawn and it’s more convenient to use the chair as a ladder than to go to the garage and get the ladder and so on. When we have the awareness and the ability to do an activity safely, we only need the motivation to do it that way. When we are aware of or created a hazardous condition we need to be motivated enough to correct it to prevent the next accident.

Accident prevention is all about recognizing and responding to hazardous conditions and hazardous acts which create those daily near misses. Convenience and comfort can be a powerful enemy and they can impact all of us. One of the hardest things you will ever do is prove you prevented anything. Having safety as a personal value creates a good foundation of safety.

Allan Manzer is Corporate Safety Engineering Manager at Optimation, a company providing engineering, design and skilled trades services for industrial companies.