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Major Factors that Causes Accident

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Major Factors that Causes Accident


Factors that Causes Accident

Accidents do not just happen, they are caused, and the causative factors need to be looked into. It is pertinent to note that there is a human factor in every accident. Human beings are the operators, Performers, implementers, supervisors or managers in facilities or of equipment and materials.

If unsafe acts are exhibited without due regard for personal safety, that of teammates, co-workers or other people around, a hazardous situation is created which leads to accident and the consequent injury or damage to property.

Unsafe acts are actions contrary to stipulated and accepted standard practices, rules and regulations. Examples of unsafe acts include, among others:

1. Improper posture in operations

2. Wearing unsafe attire/clothing and footwear.

3. By-passing safety devices

4. Horse play involving such acts as wrong throwing of materials and equipment, distracting, teasing and practical jokes.

5. Using defective or unsafe equipment.

6. Failure to put on personal protective equipment

7. Failure to properly warm-up

8. Failure to provide warning signs, signals and tags on faulty equipment.

9. Unsafe speed

10.  Rough tackling in sports

11.  Receiving or having phone calls while driving

12.  Failure to put on seat belt by drivers and passengers

13.  Driving vehicle with mechanical or electrical faults.

14.  In the same vein, unsafe conditions capable of causing accidents are created by human beings. This situation provides conducive environments for human beings to operate thereby creating incidents that cause accidents.

15.  Examples of unsafe conditions include:

16.  Rough or slippery playgrounds or floors.

17.  Defective equipment or tools

18.  Tight or over sized attire/clothing and footwear

19.  Incorrect or improper processes/procedures and arrangements.

20.  Poor ergonomics design and applications.

21.  Natural environmental hazards such as excessively high or low temperature, weather, and unguarded animals.

22.  Un-conducive workplaces exhibiting such situations as poor illumination and ventilation, absence of exit device, and poor housekeeping.

23.  Ignoring vehicular mechanical or electrical faults.

Clearly, any person who participates in strenuous or competitive sport is likely to sustain injuries at some point or the other.

Some of these injuries are acute while others progressively manifest themselves and through neglect or poor treatment, the condition may rapidly worsen (degenerate) Approaches to the injury problem are not limited to primary prevention of the initial event but may also involve any stage of the injury-producing process that could be easily and effectively changed.

Accidents (and hence injuries) have three main causative factors namely, the Host (human), the Environment, and the Agent (equipment/materials/vehicles). This conceptual model applies to accidents from all human endeavours such as road, home, sports, and industrial or individual engagements.

Haddon also developed an analytic framework that divides the sequence of events leading to an accident and the resultant injury into three phases, namely:

i. Precrash (pre-accident)

ii. Crash (Accident)

iii. Postcrash (post-accident) Factors that determine the outcome in terms of human, agent, and environment operate in each of these phases or periods.

It should be noted that each of these phases can often be manipulated in such a way that human injury is avoided, minimized, or successfully treated.

This implies that each of the phases has countermeasures, but the precrash conspicuously emerges as being synonymous with accident prevention. 

The countermeasures associated with the other two phases seem to be geared towards ameliorating crash or accident forces and deteriorating situations respectively. 

It is the third phase that emphasizes the importance of first aid or emergency medical care, extrication, and emergency systems. It refers to maximizing salvage once the damage has been done, keeping death and disability to the barest minimum.

Host: In all the many factors involved in the countermeasures of the injury producing process, none is more important than that of physical fitness status of the host (human being) involved in the various acts (operations).

Physical fitness is often developed through training which in turn, develops the strength, speed of movement, agility, skill, endurance, flexibility, balance, reaction time and coordination. These are elements that aid performance or skill-related physical fitness.

Promoting organic functional efficiency and thus effective performance of exercises or any other human activities requires the development of muscular efficiency, circulatory efficiency and respiratory efficiency, flexibility and maintenance of good body weight.

These are the elements related to healthy living and fitness enhancement.

Agent: The various activities of the host directly or indirectly affect or control the contributions of the agent as injury causative factor, for example, a hard inflated basketball infringes injury to the player's fingers such as sprain or fracture.

The ball under such a state is an agent-factor, but it is the host that puts it in such a condition, Footballers during their training periods rarely use actual football boots, carrying out their preparatory work in rubber shoes, thereby exposing themselves to common injury to the foot and ankle by kicking hard footballs with great vigour, forgetting that their feet and ankles lack the support given by boots.

Undersized boots or spiked shoes will inevitably cause blisters on the athlete's feet. Such undersized sport wears not only cause painful foot conditions but the standard of the athlete's performance will suffer greatly. Oversized stockings or unclean ones are sources of injury.

If the stocking, are too large they will cause blisters, if too small, they can lead to foot deformities over a period of use, and if dirty, they lead to a foot skin infection (e.g. athletic foot). If gymnasiums are used for training, then it is important periodically to check the equipment (human factor), as serious accidents can be caused by faulty equipment such as faulty ropes horses or bars.

Poorly manufactured equipment (human factor) is equally an injury source. Any equipment under bad condition is injury-prone. Therefore, the equipment used in sport has a big part to play in the prevention of injuries and the care and attention (a human factor) paid to such equipment will help to reduce or increase injury occurrence.

Environment: Environment here refers to the athletics or sports facilities in terms of the playing grounds/fields, courts, gymnasium, recreation centres, swimming pool and all fixed structures, as well as the temperature, light and ventilation associated with them. When these facilities are improperly guarded, defective, improperly illuminated, ventilated or hazardously loaded or arranged, the risks of causing accidents become increased since the host's adaptation mechanisms are adversely affected.

There are always interactions between man and the physical, biological and chemical hazards of his environment.

Nevertheless, the degree of the host's interaction with his agents and environment as human behaviour modifiers and injury causative factors such as his age, sex and drug or alcohol influence act as accident psychological factors. It is worthy to note that there is difficulty in separating these factors from cultural and social components of behaviour. It has been revealed that gymnasia and athletic fields are where more than half of all school accidents occur.

In that regard, some injuries can be expected during vigorous physical activity, but many of them could be avoided by the use of proper equipment and operating under good physical fitness status. However, where or when these requirements are abused, accidents occur.

 


What Does Human Factors Causing Accidents Mean?

Human factors causing accidents are factors that contribute to an accident and are directly attributable to the operator, worker, or personnel involved in an accident.

The human factors include but also go beyond wilful violations of safety rules or blatantly engaging in risky behavior. They include factors such as inattention, fatigue, and impairment from drugs or alcohol.

Human Factors Causing Accidents

It is important to consider and assess the human factors when investigating an accident. But this by no means condones or advocates placing blame on the workers. Many of the human factors causing accidents are not wilful behaviors.

Human factors are responsible for large number of accidents that occur in a workplace.

The following human factors are common causes of accidents:

Memory lapses (including forgetting a step in the work process or a safety measure)

1. Impaired judgment or reduced reasoning power

2. Inattention or distraction

3. Delayed or false sensation of the sensory organs

4. Lack of competence and experience

5. Skill level inadequate for the task performed

6. Personality or attitude, such as negligence, arrogance, or overconfidence

7. Poor risk perception due to poor knowledge and experience



Accidents caused by human factors may be prevented or reduced by implementing the following preventative measures:

   i.  Training and awareness

   ii. Supervision, monitoring, and controlling

   iii. Feedback and reports

   iv. Frequent inspections and audits

   v. Skill development

   vi. Education



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