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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