Accident / Incident Theory
Heinrich in 1930s defined accidents in the workplace as the events that are unforeseen that occur at a place of work which can lead to the probability of injury of the involved, the injury itself or even fatality. Attempts have been made to give explanations as to why accidents or incidents occur (Safety Institute of Australia, 2012). Several theories have been associated with accident causation which includes; the accident/incident theory, the domino theory, the human factors theory, system theory combination theory, epidemiological theory, and finally behavioral theory.
Human factors can be considered as the easiest way of preventing accident occurrence. The theory states that availability of these three events make it easy for people to cause accidents. The employees that work with an overload of environmental, internal or situational factors are more prone to find accidents occurring. The same situation may occur with workers who undertake inappropriate activities at a place of work. This situation happens when people take up tasks that they have not trained adequately. An inadequate response is another factor that can lead to accidents at places of work. Employees that note that a particular machine has a problem and do not take the initiative to correct it or report it. Those who ignore the safety measures that have been put in place especially for particular tools of work as well as those who ignore the safeguards of the equipment they are using (Gutierrez, 2010).
It is critical for any company that has a risk of accidents or incidents to ensure that they evaluate the accident causation chains that the institution has. This strategy ensures that the safety measures required are in place. Proper practice of safety and maintenance of a culture which the people can follow makes it easy to reduce occurrences.
References
Gutierrez, J. (2010). Theories of Accident Causation. in SlideShare. Retrieved March 15 2016 from http://www.slideshare.net/yorkypab/theories-of-accident-causation
Safety Institute of Australia. (2012) Models of Causation: Safety. OHS Body of Knowledge BOK. Retrieved March 15 2016 from http://www.ohsbok.org.au/wp- content/uploads/2013/12/32- Models-of-causation-Safety.pdf.
