Is Zero Harm a laudable approach or a misdirection--an illusion--associated with higher fatality rates?

This episode dives into the paper from: Sherratt, F., & Dainty, A. R. (2017). UK construction safety: a zero paradox?. Policy and practice in health and safety, 15(2), 108-116.

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More research at SafetyInsights.Org

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Are our investigations blinded to the functioning and effectiveness of risk controls?

Are our current approaches, and mental models about how safety events occur, defined less by what they unpack and more by what they leave in the dark?

This study unpacks these questions, and evaluates how accident investigators consider, or not, the functioning of risk controls within the context of investigations.

Ref: Dodshon, P., & Hassall, M. E. (2017). Practitioners’ perspectives on incident investigations. Safety science, 93, 187-198.

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More research at SafetyInsights.Org

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Are audits effective checks and verifications of our risk control systems?

Are they diving deep into the functionality and effectiveness of systems and practices, and evaluating actual daily, hazardous work?

Or, are they mostly rustling paperwork at the expense of real operational hazards?

Ref: Hutchinson, B., Dekker, S., & Rae, A. (2024). Audit masquerade: How audits provide comfort rather than treatment for serious safety problems. Safety science, 169, 106348.

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More research at SafetyInsights.Org

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Conventional logic suggests that we fix the gaps that we find in investigations. But is this the case?

Is the investigation process more a socially constructed game of sociopolitical whack-a-mole, finding and fixing the things that are easily solved or understandable, or tolerable to the organisation?

Lundberg, J., Rollenhagen, C., & Hollnagel, E. (2010). What you find is not always what you fix—How other aspects than causes of accidents decide recommendations for remedial actions. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 42(6), 2132-2139.

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Is there a connection between fatal and non-fatal accidents, or is it a fallacy to focus on the minor potential events with the hope of managing the major events?

Today's study explores these relationships based on 23k reported serious accidents in the Netherlands.

Ref: Bellamy, L. J. (2015). Exploring the relationship between major hazard, fatal and non-fatal accidents through outcomes and causes. Safety Science, 71, 93-103.

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How well can Learning Teams function against more traditional Root Cause Analysis techniques?

What things do they focus on, what fixes result from the learning activities? Does one focus more on blame and individuals rather than systems factors?

Today we explore a paper by Robbins et al., 2021, comparing Learning Teams vs RCAs.

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Study link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Satya-Ramachandran/publication/340141827_Evaluation_of_Learning_Teams_Versus_Root_Cause_Analysis_for_Incident_Investigation_in_a_Large_United_Kingdom_National_Health_Service_Hospital/links/647f4c552cad460a1bf9f853/Evaluation-of-Learning-Teams-Versus-Root-Cause-Analysis-for-Incident-Investigation-in-a-Large-United-Kingdom-National-Health-Service-Hospital.pdf

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Are the contributing and causal factors similar between Severe Incidents & Fatalities (SIFs) and non-fatal incidents?

Will eliminating the minor potential, low-energy hazards help prevent the major potential hazards?

Today we explore the following paper: Bayona, A., Hallowell, M. R., & Bhandari, S. (2024). TheThings That Hurt People Are Not the Same as the Things That Kill People: Key Differences in the Proximal Causes of Low-and High-Severity Construction Injuries. Journalof Construction Engineering and Management, 150(8), 04024089.

Study link: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/JCEMD4.COENG-14545

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More research at SafetyInsights.Org

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Do you trust your accident statistics? Are they accurate reflections of reality, or dangerously misleading?

In this episode, we explore the following study which evaluates the extent of accident underreporting:

Probst, T. M., & Graso, M. (2013). Pressure to produce = pressure to reduce accident reporting?. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 59, 580-587.

Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256084901_Pressure_to_producepressure_to_reduce_accident_reporting

Feel free to shout a coffee to support my site & podcasts: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinson

More research: SafetyInsights.Org

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