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CHAPTER - 2
ACCIDENT
Definition of Accident: Any unwanted, Unplanned, unforeseen event giving rise to harm or
loss of some kind (death, injury, ill-health, physical damage) is called Accident.

1. Accident Strategies

Pre-accident strategies
These can be classified as 'Safe Place' and 'Safe Person' strategies.

'Safe place' strategies
The principal objective of a 'safe place' strategy is that of bringing about a reduction in the
objective danger to people at work. These strategies feature in much of the occupational
health and safety legislation that has been enacted over the last century in particular, the
HSWA.

'Safe place' strategies may be classified under the following headings:
Safe premises, Safe plant, equipment and machinery, Safe processes, Safe materials, Safe
systems of work, Safe access to and egress from the workplace, adequate supervision and
control, Competent and trained employees

'Safe person' strategies
Generally, 'safe place' strategies provide better protection than 'safe person' strategies.
However, where it may not be possible to operate a 'safe place' strategy, then a 'safe person'
strategy must be used in. In certain cases, a combination of 'safe place' and 'safe person'
strategies may be appropriate.

The main aim of a 'safe person' strategy is to increase people's perception of risk. One of the
principal problems of such strategies is that they depend upon the individual conforming to
certain prescribed standards and practices, such as the use of certain items of personal
protective equipment. Control of the risk is, therefore, placed in the hands of the person
whose appreciation of the risk may be lacking or even non-existent.

'Safe person' strategies may be classified as follows:
Care of the vulnerable, such as pregnant employees and young persons, Personal hygiene,
Personal protective equipment, Safe behaviour, Caution in the face of danger

Post-accident (reactive) strategies
Whilst principal efforts must go into the implementation of proactive strategies, it is generally
accepted that there will always be a need for reactive or 'post-accident' strategies, particularly
as a result of failure of the various 'safe person' strategies. The problem with people is that
they forget, they take short cuts to save time and effort, they sometimes do not pay attention
or they may consider themselves too experienced and skilled to bother about taking basic
precautions.

Post-accident strategies can be classified as follows:
Disaster/contingency/emergency planning; Feedback strategies, such as those arising from
accident investigation; Improvement strategies

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TYPE OF ACCIDENT
Generally there are two types of accidents are known in occupational field as well as society,
these are:
I. Minor Accident : if any person or property gets injury / harm minor i.e. person returns
to their work within 2 days (48 Hours) or property which required no repairing cost or
time loss is termed as Minor accident.

II. Major Accident : In any person or property gets harm/injury in such a way that he
cannot return to their work within two days (48 hours), time loss occurred is termed
beyond 48 hours is termed as Major Accident.

2. CAUSES OF ACCIDENT:
Though there are three causes of accidents are observed but after careful study of about
75000 cases Heinrich found that there are following causes of accidents these are:
I. Unsafe activities (Intermediate factor) : Unsafe Act - Performance of a task or other
activity that is conducted in a manner that may threaten the health and/or safety of
workers. Examples are :
Operating without qualification or authorization.
Lack of or improper use of PPE.
Failure to tagout/lockout.
Operating equipment at unsafe speed.
Failure to warn.
Bypass or removal of safety devices.
Using defective equipment.
Use of tools for other than their intended purpose.
Working in hazardous locations without adequate protection or warning.
Improper repair of equipment.
Horseplay.
Wearing unsafe clothing.
Taking an unsafe position.

II. Unsafe Physical/Mechanical condition (Proximate factor) : Unsafe Condition - A
condition in the work place that is likely to cause property damage or injury.
Examples are:
Defective tools, equipment, or supplies.
Inadequate supports or guards.
Congestion in the workplace.
Inadequate warning systems.
Fire and explosion hazards.
Poor housekeeping.
Hazardous atmospheric condition.
Excessive noise.
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Poor ventilation.

III. Human Factor (Primary factor): This factor is related to the workers personal
behaviour and perception evolved due to their lack of knowledge, social
environment, past experiences and illiteracy etc. examples are:
Carelessness during work - reckless
Lack of work experience
Lack of capability to perform Physical Limitation
Negligence of minor incidents ignorance
Fearless from disciplinary action stubborn
Teasing to colleagues Irritation
Other psychological effect from their family or society.

3. ACCIDENT THEORY OF HEINRICHS DOMINO
The Domino Theory
Heinrich's Domino Theory states that accidents result from a chain of sequential events,
metaphorically like a line of dominoes falling over. When one of the dominoes falls, it triggers
the next one, and the next... - but removing a key factor (such as an unsafe condition or an
unsafe act) prevents the start of the chain reaction.
The Dominoes
Heinrich posits five metaphorical dominoes labelled with accident causes. They are Social
Environment and Ancestry, Fault of Person, Unsafe Act or Mechanical or Physical Hazard
(unsafe condition), Accident, and Injury. Heinrich defines each of these "dominoes" explicitly,
and gives advice on minimizing or eliminating their presence in the sequence.

a) Social Environment and Ancestry:
This first domino in the sequence deals with worker personality. Heinrich explains that
undesirable personality traits, such as stubbornness, greed, and recklessness can be
"passed along through inheritance" or develop from a person's social environment, and
that both inheritance and environment (what we usually refer to now as "nature" and
"nurture") contribute to Faults of Person.

b) Fault of Person:
The second domino also deals with worker personality traits. Heinrich explains that
inborn or obtained character flaws such as bad temper, inconsiderateness, ignorance,
and recklessness contribute at one remove to accident causation. According to Heinrich,
natural or environmental flaws in the worker's family or life cause these secondary
personal defects, which are themselves contributors to Unsafe Acts, or and the
existence of Unsafe Conditions.

c) Unsafe Act and/or Unsafe Condition:
The third domino deals with Heinrich's direct cause of incidents. As mentioned above,
Heinrich defines these factors as things like "starting machinery without warning ... and
absence of rail guards. Heinrich felt that unsafe acts and unsafe conditions were the
central factor in preventing incidents, and the easiest causation factor to remedy, a
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process which he likened to lifting one of the dominoes out of the line. These combining
factors (1, 2, and 3) cause accidents.

Heinrich defines four reasons why people commit unsafe acts "improper attitude, lack
of knowledge or skill, physical unsuitability, [and] improper mechanical or physical
environment." He later goes on to subdivide these categories into "direct" and
"underlying" causes. For example, he says, a worker who commits an unsafe act may do
so because he or she is not convinced that the appropriate preventative measure is
necessary, and because of inadequate supervision. The former he classifies as a direct
cause, the latter as an underlying cause. This combination of multiple causes, he says,
create a systematic chain of events leading to an accident.

d) Accident:
Heinrich says, "The occurrence of a preventable injury is the natural culmination of a
series of events or circumstances which invariably occur in a fixed and logical order." He
defines accidents as, "events such as falls of persons, striking of persons by flying
objects are typical accidents that cause injury."

e) Injury:
Injury results from accidents, and some types of injuries Heinrich specifies in his
"Explanation of Factors" are cuts and broken bones.

To be fair to Heinrich, he does insist that "the responsibility lies first of all with the
employer." Heinrich specifies that a truly safety-conscious manager will make sure his
"foremen" and "workers" do as they told, and "exercise his prerogative and obtain
compliance ... follow through and see the unsafe conditions are eliminated." Heinrich's
remedy for such non-compliance is strict supervision, remedial training, and discipline.



4. ACCIDENT PREVENTION
For accident prevention most suitable mathod is to emplement 5E in the organisation.

a) E ENGINEERING : The project stage is more conductive for planning safety. This is the stage
when details like equipment, material process, technology, layout environmental setup and
method of doing work etc. are finalized. Safety aspect should be discussed and built into the
system from the project stage itself. Whenever available updated technology should be given
preference over the out-dated ones even if these are costlier.
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b) E EDUCATION : Research in our country and abroad has led to the conclusion that over 96%
of the accidents are due to human failure. If adequate steps are taken to overcome human
failure by education, human being can made to modulate to different situation suitably, than
accident prevention will be a reality. The important steps of education for safety consists of
job training, dissemination of knowledge of hazards and their controls, procedure for
repairs/maintenance, work permit system, use of PPEs etc. in addition a perfect knowledge
of first-aid, fire fighting should also be included under safety education programme.

c) E ENFORCEMENT : This is the safety effort designed to protect individuals against
themselves. When employees fails to observe safe practices, which they were taught through
safety education programme, it become necessary to develop ways of enforcing rules and
procedure for their welfare. In some instance, drastic measure of penalties may become
necessary to prevent the spread of unsafe practices. Enforcing safety discipline to all is very
vital for the healthy growth of the organisation.

d) E ENTHUSIASM : As human failures account for almost all accident, it is possible to
eliminate accidents by suitable corrective methods. Human variables such as age, mental
ability, perceptual and muscular speed and above all personality differences and emotional
factors contribute to the human failures. Maintaining the morale of the people high naturally
is the prime concern of any management. All kinds of motivating techniques based on needs
and age satisfaction like individual safety awards, departmental safety contest, safety
incentive scheme, safety slogan/essay/talk contest, spot the hazard contest, and like few
more helps to motivate the people. A safety suggestion programme to identify and control
hazardous location/situation also worth implementing. Most important of all is the
participation of worker in all deliberation of safety. During hazard identification, plant safety
tour etc. the plant personnel can be associated to help and correct hazardous condition and
such association generates considerable enthusiasm in the accident prevention efforts.

e) E EVALUATION : Continuous evaluation of programmes, procedures and performance is
must in any exercise. Job safety analysis and statistics also hep in this direction. Another
aspect should be evaluated is the quality of PPEs, welfare activities etc.

5. ACCIDENT PREVENTION THEORY OF HEINRICH
It will be seen that the occurrence of an injury is the natural culmination of a series of
circumstances, which invariably occur, in a fixed and logical order. One is depended on another
and one follows because of another, thus constituting a sequence. If the series is interrupted by
elimination of even one of the several factors that comprises it, the injury cannot possibly occur.
Knowledge of the factor in the accident sequence guides and assists in selecting the point of
attack in prevention work. It permits simplification without sacrifice effectiveness. It also permits
expansion of safety work into the underlying field of human behaviour or limitation and helps in
organising and introducing most suitable control measure.
It would be appreciated, that many things might occur to break the accident sequence. A person
having inherited or acquired faults may not in an unsafe manner; it is possible, that accident will
not occur. Even if a person is involved in an accident, an injury may not be caused. The most
important point is, that unsafe actions and unsafe conditions are the immediate causes of an
accident and most practicable in determination and elimination of an accident. The management
can control the unsafe actions and remove unsafe conditions even though previous event or
circumstances in the sequence are unfavourable.
Thus in accident prevention, the bulls eye of the target is the middle of the sequence i.e. unsafe
acts of a person and unsafe conditions.

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6. COST OF AN ACCIDENT
Accidents are more expensive than most people realize because of the hidden costs. Some costs
are obvious for example, Workers' Compensation claims which cover medical costs and
indemnity payments for an injured or ill worker. These are the direct costs of accidents.
But what about the costs to train and compensate a replacement worker, repair damaged
property, investigate the accident and implement corrective action, and to maintain insurance
coverage? Even less apparent are the costs related to schedule delays, added administrative
time, lower morale, increased absenteeism, and poorer customer relations. These are the
indirect costs costs that aren't so obvious until we take a closer look.

A. Direct (insured) Cost of an accident :
1. Employers Liability
2. Public Liability
3. Product Liability
4. Motor Vehicle

B. Indirect (uninsured) Cost of an accident :
1. Product and material damage
2. Lost production time
3. Legal costs
4. Overtime & temporary labour
5. Investigation time/Administration
6. Supervisors time
7. Fines
8. Loss of expertise/experience
9. Loss of morale
10. Bad publicity (Loss of Goodwill)
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7. REASONS FOR ACCIDENT PREVENTION
There are three main reasons for preventing accidents and ill-health, these are moral/humane,
cost and legislation.
1. Moral
No-body comes to work to get injured or to become ill. No-one likes getting injured or seeing
their colleagues or friends injured in accidents. Nothing is more important than the humane
aspects of accidental loss: injury, pain, sorrow, anguish, loss of body particles or functions,
occupational illness, disability and death. Employers and employees have a moral responsibility
to prevent accidents and ill-health at work.
2. Costs (Economic)
Whether or not people are hurt, accidents do cost organisations money and the actual injury or
illness costs represent only a small part of the total. A recent study by the HSE
1
has shown that
for every Rs.1 of insured costs (i.e. the actual cost of the injury or illness in terms of medical
costs or compensation costs) the uninsured (or hidden costs) varied between Rs. 8 and Rs.36.
This has been traditionally depicted as an iceberg as the largest part of an iceberg is hidden
under the sea.
3. Legislation
Organisations have a legal obligation to prevent accidents and ill-health. Health and Safety
Legislation in the UK consists of a number of Acts that are supported by subordinate legislation
in the form of Regulations.
The principal act is the Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974. This Act sets in place a system
based on self-regulation with the responsibility for accident control placed on those who create
the risks in the first instance. It also allows for the progressive replacement of existing safety
law so that the general duties set in the 1974 act could be backed by Regulations, setting goals
and standards for specific hazards and industries. Any breach of this statutory duty can result in
criminal proceedings.