Causes of Accidents

Let us start through considering an example of how an accident could take place while a technician is working to rectify a fault. Suddenly, the rung of the ladder he is standing on breaks down, and he falls on the ground. His arm is fractured but luckily he does not sustain any serious head injury.

The question before us is -"Why did this happen? "

There could be several reasons for such an accident, a few associated to equipment and others related to safety procedures.  Let consider the following questions that might help you in arriving at a suitable answer:

• How do we design our ladders or other associate equipment such as access stairs and platforms?
• How do we purchase ladders? Do we buy the cheapest available?
• Are they checked on arrival, for suitability?
• Are ladders stored in a controlled manner?
• Have we included ladders in our maintenance programme?

Questions related to safety procedure would be:

• Do we have safety rules for using ladders and working at heights?
• Have people been trained in those safety rules?
• Are ladders properly marked and identified?
• Do we have any sort of an inventory control of ladders?
• Are people adequately supervised, particularly while performing risky tasks?

The purpose for this accident could stem from any one of the subsequent factors:

• The issue of ladder safety is one of the least significant in the safety management system.
• Ladder safety might be addressed but the standard of performance is inadequate.
• Standards might be defined but there is no compliance.

This example is a pointer to the causes of accidents that may be widely divided into two categories: Direct and Indirect.