Whenever there’s an accident—whether someone is killed or someone breaks an arm or leg—somebody is sure to ask, “How did it happen?” The answer should always be the same: “It didn’t happen. Accidents don’t just happen; they’re always caused.”
Suppose you fall down the stairs in your house and break a leg. That didn’t just happen. Something made you fall. Maybe you were in a hurry and took the stairs faster than you should have. Possibly something else caused the accident. Maybe one of your kids left roller blades on the stairs, or the carpet edge was coming loose (you meant to fix it) and your foot got caught in it.
If you did fall down the stairs, chances are the cause was a combination of things. Maybe you were rushing and didn’t notice the skates or the carpet edge.
It’s the same with accidents on the job. Something or someone causes every accident and most accidents have a number of factors that interact.
Here’s an example: You can light a match, throw it on the floor, and it will go out by itself. But, suppose, instead, that you threw the lighted match among papers. The first match went out, but the second started a fire because it fell into combustible material.
So, if a fire starts, who and what caused it? Was it you, who carelessly threw away the match, or was it the person and the mess of papers into which the match fell? The combination of all the factors was necessary for the fire to start.
That’s the way it is with most accidents. You can often take a shortcut or even violate safety rules without causing an accident. But, there may come that one time when the other parts of the accident combination are ready and waiting to turn your careless act into a disaster.
We all should know the safe way to do the job. The best way to do this is to make sure we’re all incorporating regular safety training into our scheduling. If each of us knows the right way to do a job, we’ll never be the one who caused the accident.