FACTS
- Root, or basic, causes are the deep hidden person and job factors that give rise to the immediate causes in the form of high-risk acts and/or conditions.
- Risk assessment of all near miss incidents will determine which near miss incidents warrant a full investigation to track and eliminate the source of the problem at the root.
- Near-miss accidents are opportunities for corrective actions to prevent serious injuries or even worse, fatalities in the workplace.
- Reducing the number of close calls automatically lowers the odds of having minor injuries (frequency) or a major injury (severity). Near misses that go uncorrected inevitably become accidents.
- There are multiple causes for an accident involving equipment (unguarded machinery), environment (poor lighting or noise level), people (procedures not understood or not followed), or management (allowed shortcuts).
- The principle of multiple causes indicates that accidents are usually the result of a multitude of causes and there are usually many immediate causes and numerous root causes behind every event.
STATS
- According to statistics, about 3 billion “close calls” or “near misses” occur annually in United States workplaces. Statistics also show that for every 300 near misses, 29 minor injuries occur, along with one injury serious enough to keep the injured person out of work.
- In 2018, there were 2.8 million lives impacted by workplace incidents that resulted in injury or illness.
- 900,000 of those incidents were so harmful that workers needed days away from work to recuperate.
- Out of all goods-producing industries, the manufacturing industry had the highest rate of incidents resulting in days away from work.
- 14 workers died per day in work-related incidents, which was a 2% increase from the year before.