The Chain of Events Leading to a Near-Miss or Accident

There is always a chain of events that lead up to a near miss or accident.

By placing equal focus on understanding why staff make errors and mistakes as on the technical aspects of safety helps to tackle error reduction in a structured and proactive way.

Approximately within 85-90% of all accidents there has been an element of decision-making that has been a major factor in what went wrong, for example; a decision to act or not to act in a certain way that led to the final incident.

There are two types of unintentional behaviours: errors and mistakes.

Errors are actions that were not planned showing themselves as slips or lapses in concentration, for example; forgetting to perform a certain step in a process, which could lead to an issue such as; removing a guard for cleaning, but not replacing it afterwards.

Such errors can’t be eliminated by training, but more in the improvement in designs of equipment etc.

Mistakes are errors of judgement or decision-making where the wrong thing is done believing it to be right; for example blocking a fire escape to keep a busy walkway clear.

How do you deal with these mistakes? Training is key! Well trained staff will understand the rules and through supervision of new staff ensures on-the-job training is correct and bad habits aren’t passed on.  Refresher training can help make staff re-evaluate the risks and avoid complacency.

Getting to the root cause of any violation is the key to understanding and thus reoccurrence.

If you require assistance with appropriate health and safety policies, procedures or staff training, then contact our team today (on 0800 246 1802) to find out how we can help you!