Potential Accident Events
The occupational health and safety (OHS) management system is part of the overall management system of the enterprise, which includes:
- Organizational structure
- Planning
- Responsibilities
- Procedures
- Processes and resources
An important element of OHS management is the identification of potential accident events, also known as near misses, close calls, or no-injury incidents.
Employer’s Responsibilities (including those managing employees)
- The employer is obliged to protect the health and life of employees by ensuring safe and hygienic working conditions with the appropriate use of scientific and technical advancements, including providing the development of a consistent policy to prevent workplace accidents and occupational diseases, considering technical issues, work organization, working conditions, social relations, and the impact of work environment factors (Article 207 of the Labour Code);
- The employer is obliged to ensure systematic checks on the state of occupational health and safety, with particular regard to the organization of work processes, the technical condition of machinery and other technical equipment, and to establish methods for registering irregularities and ways to eliminate them (§ 40 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation).
Employees
- Employees must immediately inform their supervisor of any workplace accidents or threats to human life or health observed at the workplace and warn colleagues, as well as other individuals in the danger zone, about the impending danger;
- Employees must cooperate with the employer and supervisors in fulfilling their duties related to occupational health and safety (Article 211 of the Labour Code).
Benefits of investigating potential accident events
- Limiting company losses
- Effective accident prevention
- Improvement of working conditions
- Minimization of existing hazards
- Elimination of the recurrence of potential accident events
- Detection of dangerous situations and behaviors
- Raising our awareness
- Developing a safety culture
One of the most ubiquitous safety models is the Safety Pyramid, originally proposed by H.W. Heinrich over 80 years ago. The early success of the pyramid was due to its elegant display of simple statistical relationships between types and amounts of incidents and injuries – with the probability of a fatal accident occurring. Although the model has been heavily criticized by many researchers over the years, it remains a fundamental relational model that explains all kinds of safety-related problems. From a simple analysis, we can conclude that the more identified events (greater sensitivity) at the base of the pyramid, the fewer workplace accidents.
Dealing with Potentially Accident-Prone Events
“Investigating the root causes of workplace accidents, occupational diseases, and potentially accident-prone events should serve to identify any nonconformities in the occupational safety and health management system; the results of these investigations should be documented (PN-N 18001:2004, point 4.5.2). Definition: A dangerous event related to the work performed, during which no injury or deterioration in health occurs (PN-N 18001:2004, point 3.24).”