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The real Philosophy of Accident Causation

 It can be concluded as under:

1. It is true that unsafe condition and unsafe act ion, both, exist and play their role in accident '

causation.

2. There mayor may not be any single cause as 'unsafe condition only' or 'unsafe action only'. Proper

fact data must be searched to find out the real cause of accident. In want of sufficient or correct

data, no conclusion should be drawn about the real or sole cause of accident.

3. 'Why did the man make mistake?' should be thoroughly examined in depth and working or

environmental condition must be detected as a root or real cause of his human failure. The poor

vision and poor illumination, both, are unsafe conditions, and can be rectified by necessary

spectacles and increase of light.

4. If the causes are combined, classify them and try to remove them priority wise.

5. Unsafe condition has more accident potential and can lead to a serious accident. Therefore it must

be detected first by various safety inspection methods or safety audits and must be removed by

proper engineering controls. Unsafe conditions have caused major accidents in past.

6. Unsafe action requires behavioural or psychological study of workers, which should be carried

out and unsafe action should be rectified before it may cause any unsafe condition, hazard or

accident. The purpose of this causation analysis is to train the workers properly and to minimize

man-made hazards or unsafe conditions timely.

7. All causes of accident should be considered together, instead of analysing and separating as

unsafe action or unsafe condition and blaming one or the other. It is not cheaper to prolong hazard

than to remove it.

8. New study of accident causes reveals that 3% were due wholly to mechanical cause, 2% due

wholly to unsafe acts "and 95% to a combination of both the causes. The percentage may vary. to some extent in different case studies, but it is the best approach to safety that mostly the causes

are combined or complex and they all should-be removed wholly.

9. The concept of accident proneness is not the real cause of majority of accidents. This concept has

historical value (as it was originally derived from psychological studies), but it requires proper

understanding and its causes (including faulty working conditions) should be removed. This

concept is explained at length in the next Chapter.

10. Employer‟s mentality based on old theory of "unsafe act as predominant accident factor" must be

removed and they should follow the new concept that percentage of unsafe act or unsafe condition

are not important, the causes are mostly combined, are equally important and require self

motivated sincere efforts and full money investment in removing all of them and making the man,

machine, material, manufacturing process and all environment fully safe and healthy. Good

working conditions contribute less error and less hazards. Information and training to detect and

remove hazards at any level are utmost necessary.

11. It should be accepted that majority of accidents happen with contract workers as they are illiterate,

untrained, unskilled, less equipped and poorly supervised. Therefore more attention must be paid

for their safety.