What does the latest research on serious injuries / SIFs tell us? Let’s look to 1915…
Here’s some findings from Myers 1915 article exploring the first workers’ comp data from US state commissions.
Some interesting findings:
· Experienced workers weren’t necessarily the least injured – they found that rather than the “old and clumsy” or careless most likely being injured, in fact the avg age of permanently injured was 34, and 36% were 20 years old.
· Workplace staging & design: they note that a common hazard in general construction was “poor staging quickly constructed, a one- or two-plank scaffold with no guards, lax rules …, [and] new stairways and openings left unprotected”.
· While machine guarding was seen as critical and necessary – they note that ~72% of accidents occurred where “safeguards were not applicable”, e.g. most accidents happened in situations where guarding could never have prevented the injury, and even a perfectly guarded/safeguarded workplace would have dealt with about 1/5 of the problem.
· Blaming people wasn’t matched by the data – while they say that ignorance or experience played some part, deliberate recklessness and intoxication were “so exceedingly slight as not to require serious consideration”.
· Production pressure was a major risk in its own right – they noted the switch to “speeding-up” was pushing workers “at nerve-racking speed”; excessive speed was listed among the highest causes of accidents.
· The commission noted, naturally, that reported accidents were incomplete / underreported.
So…111 years ago, and it discusses the same matters as today: young/inexperienced workers, hazards not covered by safeguards, overweighted blame on people, production pressures, and missing data.
It seems to support the belief, at least indirectly, that controls save lives.
PS. Check out my YouTube: https://youtube.com/@safe_as_pod?si=V2dbdmW–WbnhzA9
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Ref: Myers, G. (1915). A Study of the Causes of Industrial Accidents. Publications of the American Statistical Association, 14(111), 672–694.
#SafetyScience #SIF #HOP #SafetyDifferently #SafetyII #workplacesafety #OHS #WHS #constructionsafety
