Accidents at work place- Reason and Solutions

As cited by Peter (2003), the practical and positive management of safety in the
workplace facilitate companies avert harm and injuries at work. Accident at work place
causes physical or mental harm to the staff. The accidents happening during work or
job activity are called workplace accidents and they cause loss time injury to the work.
As defined by Terry (2001) it is rapid, unexpected, unintentional, intense advert
incident, while performing the work or occurring out of it, which results in physical
harm or loss of the life. These accidents are part of risk factors in work.
Many job activities have risky and danger conditions. These risks can be due to
human, animal, machine, environment, and employee skill or job activity. Prevention is
key aspect in avoiding many accidents. Many companies employ HSE (Health and
Safety Executive) policies to prevent accidents.

Objective

Objective of this study is to know causes and types of workplace accidents,
their prevention and solutions

Reasons for Accidents
According to Hollenbeck (2000) the most common reasons of workplace accidents are
Personal factors: Personal factors are attributes of a person which may result or
cause the person to do something in risky and insecure way. Insufficient skills to
handle work, fatigue, dullness, low confidence and medical issue can cause a person
to do accident. Speeding up to get the job done faster, not thinking about safety and
taking things for granted result in accident. Apart from this insufficient workspace,
crowd near machinery, working beyond stipulated working hours and repeating same
and tiresome work caused fatigue and results in accidents.

Insufficient Training: Lack of training to employee about the proper handling of work
and handling risks involved in the work process are major reason for accident. While
working if employee does not take care about surroundings and risk factor then abrupt
incidents happen. Also it is found that some untrained worker use machinery without
permission endangering themselves and others.
Use of Drugs: Use of alcohol and Drugs will reduce mental ability to judge things and
take proper decisions. People tend to do mistake causing accidents under influence of
drugs. This has been main cause of accidents where management does not imply
rules on employee code and behavior.
Falling Objects: Loose fitted or improperly placed objects may slip and topple
causing damage to machines and employees.
Carelessness: Carelessness in job activity and violating the safety or standard work
procedures cause accidents. Not paying attention to work, not using protective
equipment and due to some stress, distractions result in accident.
Misplaced Objects: Objects and items places at pathway or close to operating
machines cause fall accidents. Placing wires, boxes, tools and extra objects.
Defective equipment: This is most common reason for accident at workplace. Wear
and tear in machines and improper installation can cause major injuries. It is been
observed that faulty machine or sub standard machine causes more accident than any
other things. Also not having suitable guarding for machines and irregular
maintenance activities make workplace unsafe.

Dangerous Chemicals: Use of hazardous chemical without proper safety and
precautions cause severe health injuries and harm. Leaking of gas, spill of acid or
hazardous chemical due to machine or human fault cause accidents. This may also
effect environment.
Inadequate administration: Due to lack of supervision and direction from supervisors
cause work injuries. Most of the time workers need continuous and proper guidance
from supervisors, any carelessness in supervision is also a reason.
Deficient Work Safety Program: Absence or ineffective safety policy will make work
place prone to accidents and injuries.

Prevention and Solutions
Giselle (2005) defines in her research and finding that prevention is the best method
to avoid accidents. Company Management has crucial responsibility in preventing
accidents and solutions to them. It must establish an effective safe and health
atmosphere.
Company should appoint safety in-charge or manager. The manager or supervisor
has to do Job Safety Analysis in order to know accident prone areas and situations.
This analysis is done on daily observations of risks and interruptions. List of jobs with
potential risks are listed in order of high to low considering people having risky job,
new entrant and frequent offenders. He will be responsible for safeguarding workers in
case of any accident.
According to Hamlett (2008) through investigation of past accidents and reason
should be done by interviewing, collecting data and facts. An incident report should be
prepared after every work palce accident. Based on this analysis basic rules are set
like Do not touch, Keep Away from machine part or do not distract operator etc.
With proper Ergonomics the job can be designed keeping health safety with respect to
machines, work and worker. Based on this a proper policy describing instructions like
how to store toxic material and how to store or handle a product. These instructions
should be included in the induction training of new employees and existing employees
should get health and safety training. They should be taught how to report an incident
or unsafe situation.
Inflammable and explosive materials should be stores carefully. Handling instructions
and safety precautions should be taken. In case of any fire accident fire extinguisher
should be handy and quick evacuation should happen. Immediately it should be
informed to safety incahrge and manager .
All the machines and equipment should be examined regularly to make sure there
working fine. If any unusual noise or malfunction is notices, usage of that machine
should be stopped until it is fixed. Also making a routine or scheduled check up and
service of machinery can avoid a potential danger or accident.

Considering personal factors for safety, employee having heavy work or working with
heavy loads should be given proper rest after regular intervals and training to stretch
their arms and legs to avoid fatigue. Safety hard boots, helmet and safety glasses
should be used every time while on the work. Also precaution should be taken
against rough weather conditions. For workers working in cold areas, proper warm
clothing and equipments should be provided. For workers in warm areas like desert,
body cool clothing and adequate water supply should be provided.

Workers should be regularly communicated about need of safety. Proper sign boards,
hoardings and displays should be made to keep reminding and communicating about
safety. Proper safe exits in case of emergency should be available and known along
with safe assembly point outside the premises.

As per Arthur (2007), very important of all proper corrective action should be taken to
avoid reoccurrence of such accident. These actions should avoid the reasons of
accidents to reoccur. Before implementing any policy and rule care should be taken to
make best utilization of safety resources without interrupting work. The policy should
cover terms and safeguarding of a workplace all employees. Planned and organized
repairs and upkeep of all machines and equipments should take place. Industry safety
instructions, emergency plan and disaster management should be covered and
followed.

Conclusion

The above Study was an overview of accidents at workplace and their solutions.
Accidents do happen at work place. They are unexpected indents happen sue to
various reasons like human error, machine latency or defect or external factors.
Inefficient work safety program by organization is major factor in such accidents.
Accident cause personal and property harm. Also result in disturbing job activities at
workplace. Organizations should take work related accidents very seriously.
Prevention is the best approach to avoid such accidents. By having proper and
effective health safety policy an organization can avoid or minimize accidents. Proper
analysis of accidents and work situation should be done in order to make safety
policy. A safety incharge should take of implementing safety measures in
organization.


Reference
1. Peter Rose (2003), HOW DO HUMAN FACTORS LEAD TO ACCIDENTS,
Oxford University |Press
2. Terry K. (2001), . Successful health and safety management, HSE Books,
London
3. Hollenbeck G. (2000), Strategies to promote safe behavior, Orion press, Ireland
4. Giselle Tattrie (2005), Safety first: A Guide to Health & Safety Executive,
Demand Media, NY
5. Hamlett (2008), Causes of Workplace Injuries, source:
http://smallbusiness.chron.com

6. http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causinj/kinds-of-accident.htm
7. Work accident related blog". Accident-work-place.blogspot.com
8. Arthur (2007), Health and Safety demand, London