Occupational Health and Safety Accidents
An occupational accident is an unexpected and undesirable event, especially one resulting in damage or harm. Accidents are unplanned and sudden events that cause damage to a person or property. Many times, accidents are not just because of a small mistake or a simple mishap from a busy worker. Many occupational accidents are tied to workers’ carelessness.
Occupational accidents can be classified into the following types,
- Auto accidents
- Boat and water accidents
- Train, tram, and plane accident
- Slips, trips, and fall
- Wrongful death / clinical negligence
- Work accidents/factory accidents
- Defective and dangerous products
- Dog bite/snake bite/horse/animal accidents
- Food poisoning
- Assaults, hijacking
- Sports Injury
While there are various types of occupational accidents. There are two basic causes for the occurrence of such occupational accidents. They are as follows
- Unsafe conditions
- Unsafe acts
01. Unsafe Conditions
Accidents can occur in an organization through the unsafe conditions of its employees and employers. Some of the reasons for such accidents are given below.
- Improperly guarded equipment
- Defective equipment
- Hazardous procedure in, on, and around machines/equipment
- Unsafe storage – congestion, overloading
- Improper illumination – glare, insufficient light
- Improper ventilation – insufficient air changes, impure air source
Below are some of the remedies for accidents in the workplace due to unsafe conditions.
- To identify and eliminate the unsafe condition
- To identify and address the mechanical and physical accident-causing conditions.
- The employer’s safety department, its HR managers, and top managers should take responsibility for identifying unsafe conditions.
02. Unsafe Acts
There are chances that workplace accidents may take place due to unsafe acts and activities of organization employees and employers. Following are some such conditions.
- Operating without authority
- Operating or working at unsafe speeds
- Making safety devices inoperative
- Using unsafe equipment
- Neglecting to wear personal protective equipment (PPE)
- Unsafe loading, placing, mixing, and combining
- Taking an unsafe position or posture
If an organization and its workforce act with these in mind, there is a possible chance that workplace accidents will be reduced or prevented. And it helps to occurring to become a better workplace. So, it is better for the company and the employees to know in advance how to prevent such accidents. Below are some tips to prevent workplace accidents.
- Reducing unsafe condition
- Select safety-minded employees
- Provide safety training
- Use behavior – bases safety
- Use employee participation
- Conducts safety and health audits and inspection
- Emphasize safety
- Use posters, incentive programmes, and positive reinforcement to motivate employees
Although such ideas help to reduce workplace accidents, there are still chances of many accidents occurring. When accidents occur at a company’s workplace, it affects the company in many ways. Sometimes they get negative results and positive results. Here are some outcomes of workplace accidents
Negative Results
- Injury & Possible death
- Disease
- Damage to equipment & property
- Litigation costs, possible citations
- Lost productivity
- Morale
Positive results
- Accident investigation
- Prevent repeat of accidents
- Change to safety programs
- Change to procedure
- Change to equipment design
Therefore, if an organization acts with such conditions in mind, it can reduce the accidents that may occur there and become a better workplace that improves the welfare of the employees