Accident

A railing accident at a Texas Longhorns college football game, spilling fans onto the sidelines

An accident, also known as an unintentional injury, is an undesirable, incidental, and unplanned event that could have been prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence. Most scientists who study unintentional injury avoid using the term "accident" and focus on factors that increase risk of severe injury and that reduce injury incidence and severity (Robertson, 2015).

Types

Unintentional injury deaths per million persons in 2012
  107-247
  248-287
  288-338
  339-387
  388-436
  437-505
  506-574
  575-655
  656-834
  835-1,165

Physical and non-physical

Physical examples of accidents include unintended motor vehicle collisions or falls, being injured by touching something sharp, hot, electrical or ingesting poison. Non-physical examples are unintentionally revealing a secret or otherwise saying something incorrectly, forgetting an appointment etc.

By activity

By vehicle

Versailles rail accident in 1842

Common causes

Incidence of accidents (of a severity of resulting in seeking medical care), sorted by activity (in Denmark in 2002).

Poisons, vehicle collisions and falls are the most common causes of fatal injuries. According to a 2005 survey of injuries sustained at home, which used data from the National Vital Statistics System of the United States National Center for Health Statistics, falls, poisoning, and fire/burn injuries are the most common causes of death.[2]

The United States also collects statistically valid injury data (sampled from 100 hospitals) through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System administered by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.[3] This program was revised in 2000 to include all injuries rather than just injuries involving products.[3] Data on emergency room visits is also collected through the National Health Interview Survey.[4] In The U.S. the Bureau of Labor Statistics has available on their website extensive statistics on workplace accidents.[5]

Accident models

Many models to characterize and analyze accidents have been proposed,[6] which can by classified by type. Notable types and models include:[7]

Ishikawa diagrams are sometimes used to illustrate root-cause analysis and five whys discussions.

See also

General

Transportation

Other specific topics

References

Robertson, LS. Injury Epidemiology: Fourth Edition. Free online at www.nanlee.net

  1. ↑ "ILO Safety and Health at Work". International Labour Organization (ILO)
  2. ↑ Runyan CW, Casteel C, Perkis D, et al. (January 2005). "Unintentional injuries in the home in the United States Part I: mortality". Am J Prev Med. 28 (1): 73–9. PMID 15626560. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2004.09.010.
  3. 1 2 CPSC. National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). Database query available through: NEISS Injury Data.
  4. ↑ NCHS. Emergency Department Visits. CDC.
  5. ↑ http://www.bls.gov/iif
  6. ↑ A long list of books and papers is given in: Taylor, G.A., Easter, K.M., Hegney, R.P. (2004). Enhancing Occupational Safety and Health. Elsevier. pp. 241–245, see also pages 140–141 and pages 147–153, also on Kindle. ISBN 0750661976.
  7. ↑ Yvonne Toft; Geoff Dell; Karen K Klockner; Allison Hutton (April 2012). "Models of Causation: Safety". In HaSPA (Health and Safety Professionals Alliance). OHS Body of Knowledge (PDF). Safety Institute of Australia Ltd. ISBN 978-0-9808743-1-0.
  8. ↑ H.W. Heinreich (1931). Industrial Accident Prevention. McGraw-Hill.
  9. ↑ Bird and Germain, 1985
  10. ↑ Gibson, Haddon, Viner
  11. ↑ Viner
  12. ↑ Svenson
  13. ↑ Reason, James T. (1991). "Too Little and Too Late: A Commentary on Accident and Incident Reporting". In Van Der Schaaf, T.W.; Lucas, D.A.; Hale, A.R. Near Miss Reporting as a Safety Tool. Butterworth-Heinemann. pp. 9–26.
  14. ↑ Perrow, 1984
  15. ↑ Leveson 2004
  16. ↑ Hollnagel, 2004
  17. ↑ Dekker 2011
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