from the State Fund Construction Safety Newsletter, Issue 1, 2011
A safe workplace can increase worker productivity and lower the cost of business operation. Workplace accidents and illnesses can be reduced, or even eliminated, through informed planning and education.
In the workplace a “close call” or accident without an injury is likely to be shrugged off or forgotten. How- ever it is not wise to brush off an accident that doesn’t harm or damage. When a “close call” occurs, it should be cause for concern that something is wrong and has the possibility of occurring again while causing damage, injury, or even death.
There are typically several contributing factors for every accident, many of which can be controlled. In order to prevent the reoccurrence of an accident an examination be conducted. By investigating the root causes, steps can be taken to reduce and possibly eliminate the hazards and improve the work system.
There can be multiple causes for an accident:
• Equipment – unguarded machinery
• Environment – poor lighting or noise level
• People – procedures not understood or followed
• Management – shortcuts were allowed
Examining all the facts to find out what is missing and not making hasty judgments provides analysis of the underly- ing cause. An immediate cause could be an unsafe condi- tion such as a mechanical failure or unsafe action by an employee. The underlying cause could be poor machine maintenance, a missing guard, a crowded work area or a lack of training.
Your supervisor should be notified of all incidents. Once an investigation is completed, preventative measures should be put in place to avert an accident from reoccurring. Measures may include engineering controls, administrative controls, additional training or increased communication between management and workers.
Workers should perform daily inspections of the work area for unsafe conditions or unsafe actions, and if any are found – they should be reported to the supervisor. Steps should be taken to eliminate hazards as soon as they are discovered. Investigate those close calls, no matter how minor they may seem at the time.