Unsafe Acts, Unsafe

Conditions, Accidents
The won’t see what
the mind doesn’t KNOW.
What is SAFETY?
 Freedom from accidents
 Absence of hazardous
condition and acts
 Freedom from harm, injury
and loss
 Control of hazards and
accidents in the workplace
Health
▷ Freedom from illness
▷ State of wellness, not just the absence of
disease

Hazard
▷The potential of act or condition that can lead
to an accident.

Risk
▷The chance or probability of hazard to cause
physical injury or loss.
▷ Injury will be the same?
▷ Hazard is the same?
▷ Risk is the same?
▷ Accident will happen?
20 FT

10 FT

Condition A Condition B
Consequences
of operational
errors are not
linear in their
magnitude
 “
What is Occupational Safety and
Health?
 Is a discipline with a broad scope
involving three major fields:
 Occupational Safety
 Occupational Health
 Industrial Hygiene
Industrial Hygiene is the control of hazards
to acceptable limits;

It is the identification, evaluation and control

of hazards in the workplace
What is an Accident?
An accident is an undesired, unwanted,
unplanned & unexpected event that results in
harm to people, damage to property or loss to
process.

An unplanned, unwanted, but controllable event

which disrupts the work process and causes injury to
people.

Accidents occur as a result of a fault in the total

system, not a fault in a individual worker.
An accident is usually the
result of contact of a body
with a source of energy above
the threshold limit of that body
Immediate causes of accidents
are the:

Unsafe ACTS

Unsafe CONDITIONS
 Unsafe Acts (Human Factors)
An unsafe act is usually the last of a series of events before
the accident occurs (it could occur at any step of the event)

By stopping or eliminating the unsafe act, we can stop the

accident from occurring
▷ Failure to warn
▷ Failure to obey rules
▷ Failure to follow procedures
▷ Removing safety devices
▷ Improper lifting
▷ Failure to use PPE
▷ Servicing while operating equipment
▷ horseplay
Unsafe Behavior
▷ Negligence
▷ Anger/Temper
▷ Hasty Decisions
▷ Indifference
▷ Distractions
▷ Curiosity
▷ Inadequate Instructions
▷ Poor Work Habits
▷ Over-Confidence
▷ Lack of Planning
Unsafe Condition
▷ Presence of defective tools/ equipment/ materials
▷ Congestion or restricted body movement
▷ Inadequate warning systems
▷ Presence of Fire/explosion hazards
▷ Poor housekeeping/disorder
▷ With Noise/radiation exposure
▷ Exposure to extremes of temperature /
ventilation
▷ Inadequate guards / barriers
Outside Factors
▷ Drugs
▷ Alcohol
▷ Depression
▷ Family issues
▷ Intent
▷ Management Failures
More or less, 90% of accidents are caused
by unsafe acts and the remaining 10% are
caused by unsafe conditions.
It has also been estimated that about 98%
of accidents could have been prevented
and the remaining 2% only are
unpreventable in nature.
 Cost of Accidents
Represented by an ICEBERG

• Medical
Direct Costs • Compensation

• Time lost from work by injured

• Loss time by fellow workers
• Damage to tools and equipment
Indirect & • Time damaged equipment is out of service
Hidden Costs of • Spoiled work
Accidents • Loss time by supervision
• Loss of Production
• Miscellaneous - 100 other items of cost

Indirect Costs = 5 to 8x of
Direct Costs
 Types of Causes

Basic Causes:
Poor Management Safety Policy & Decisions
Personal Factors/Environmental Factors

Unsafe Act Conditions

Performance Indirect Causes

Unplanned release of energy

(Direct Cause)
ACCIDENT
Personal Injury
Property Damage
Examples of Accident Causes

Direct Causes Indirect Causes Basic Causes

Struck by/against Failure to secure No oversight
Falls Guarding Poor maintenance.
Caught in/between Improper use Training
Exertion Unsafe position Policies
Contact with…. Environmental Stress
Impact (vehicle) Defect Engineering
 Examples of Accident Causes

Struck by Struck-against Contact-by

A person is forcefully A person forcefully strikes Contact by a substance or
struck by an object. The an object. The person material that, by its very
force of contact is provides the force or nature, is harmful and
provided by the object. causes injury.
energy.

Contact –with Caught-on Caught-in

A person comes in contact A person or part of his/her
with a harmful substance clothing or equipment is
or material. The person caught on an object that is
either moving or
initiates the contact.
stationary.
A person or part of
him/her is trapped, or
otherwise caught in an
opening or enclosure.
 Examples of Accident Causes
Caught-between
A person is crushed,
pinched or otherwise
caught between a moving
and a stationary object, or
between two moving
objects.
Over-exertion
A person over-extends or
strains himself/herself
while performing work.
Fall-To-surface
A person slips or trips and
falls to the surface he/she
is standing or walking on.
Bodily reaction
Caused solely from stress
imposed by free
movement of the body or
assumption of a strained
or unnatural body
position. A leading
source of injury.
Fall-To-lower
A person slips or trips and
falls to a level below the
one he/she was walking or
standing on
Over-exposure
Over a period of time, a
person is exposed to
harmful energy (noise,
heat), lack of energy
(cold), or substances
(toxic
chemicals/atmospheres).
Accident Causation Theories

Preventing accidents is extremely difficult

in the absence of an understanding of the
causes of accidents, which are
1) Multiple Causation Theory
2) Heinrich’s Domino Theory
3) Pure Chance Theory
4) Accident Proneness Theory
5) Energy Transfer Theory
6) Biased Liability Theory
1 Multiple Causation Theory
▷ This theory postulates that for single accident there may be
many contributory factors & root causes.

Multiple Sources of Accidents

People Environment

Sources of
Accidents
or Losses

Material Equipment
2 Heinrich’s Domino Theory
▷ W.H. Heinrich developed the domino theory which
states that 88% of accidents are caused by unsafe
acts, 10% by unsafe conditions and 2% by “Äct of
God”.
▷ He proposed a five (5) factor accidents sequence
in which each factor would actuate the next step
in the manner of falling one after the other, just like
dominoes.
▷ Accidents happen by chain reactions of
phenomena and accidents are prevented when
one of the dominoes are removed.
 5 DOMINO’S
5 FACTORS in
sequence lead to
accident:
1. Ancestry and
social
environment
[Source]
2. Unsafe
Condition
3. Unsafe Act
[Fault of
Person]
4. Accident
5. Injury
 HEINRICH’S 5 DOMINO MODEL

ANCESTRY/ UNSAFE UNSAFE

ACCIDENT INJURY
SOCIAL CONDITION ACT

INADEQUATE
PROGRAM PERSONAL
FAULT OF CONTACT
FACTORS PEOPLE
INADEQUATE PERSON WITH
STANDARDS ENERGY PROPERTY
JOB PROCESS
OR
FACTORS
POOR SUBSTANCE
COMPLIANCE
TO
STANDARDS

10% 88%

2% ACT of GOD
3 Pure Chance Theory
▷This theory explains that every one of
any given set of workers has an equal
chance of being involved in an accident.
▷It further implies that there is no single
discernible patter of events that leads to
an accident.
▷In addition, all accidents are treated as
corresponding to Heinrich’s Acts of God,
& it is held there exists no interventions
to prevent them.
4 Accident Proneness Theory
▷That within a particular workplace, there
is always a subset of workers who are
more liable to be involved in accidents.
▷Researches made disagreed, results were
poorly obtained, contradictory and
inconclusive.
▷Not acceptable, however, it may account
for very low proportion of accidents.
5 Energy Transfer Theory
▷Claims that workers suffer injury or
equipment suffers damage by means of
harmful change of energy, and that for
every change of energy there is a source,
a path and a receiver.

source path receiver

The path of energy transfer can be
modifies through:

o Enclosure of the path

o Installation of barriers
o Installation of absorbers
o Position/ isolation
o Limitation of exposure
o Use of PPE
6 Biased Liability Theory

▷The belief that once a worker is involved

in an accident, there is the chance that
the same worker will be involved in
future accidents, as compared to the rest
of the workers.
▷Seems to contribute very little amount, if
anything at all, towards developing
preventive actions.
Causes of Accidents are classified as:
▷ Unsafe Condition – seen as physical or chemical
property in the material
▷ Unsafe Act – a violation of safe procedure
o act of omission
o act commission

▷ The total elimination of risk is not achievable

▷ No human-made system can be free from risk and
error
▷ Human error is considered contributing factor in
most accident occurrences
▷ Even competent personnel commit errors.
INADEQUATE: People
Comprehensive Contact w/ Energy or Substance
1 System Environment
SAFETY above the threshold limit of the Machine
2 Standards & HEALTH
body or structure Equipment
PROGRAM
3 Compliance

LACK OF BASIC IMMEDIATE

CONTROL CAUSES CAUSES ACCIDENT LOSS
(Result of Accident)
(EVENT)

1 PERSONAL FACTORS 1 UNSAFE CONDITIONS

Inadequate capability Inadequate guards/barriers
Lack of knowledge Inadequate PPE
Defective tools/equipment BUSINESS
Lack of skill
Congestion
Stress
Inadequate warning system Profitability
Improper motivation
Disorder Growth
Excessive exposures
2 JOB FACTORS Continuity
Inadequate ventilation
Inadequate leadership Inadequate illumination
Inadequate engineering
Inadequate purchasing 2 UNSAFE ACTS
Inadequate maintenance Failure to warn
Inadequate tools & equipment Failure to obey rules
Wear & tear Failure to follow procedures
Inadequate work standards Removing safety devices
Abuse & misuse Improper lifting
Failure to use PPE Why you
Servicing operating equipment need
Horseplay
SAFETY !!!
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