Traditional safety teachings tell us if you prevent minor injuries, you will automatically prevent major injuries from occurring. Old accident ratio studies insist on setting ratios between proactive observation, near misses, minor incidents and serious incidents such as –the Heinrich and Bird Iceberg Theory - many in the safety community have pursued the theory religiously. The belief is if you eliminate lower level incidents (first aid) you can in turn; eliminate higher level incidents (lost time injuries) from occurring.

I unquestionably agree there are lower level incidents that have the potential to result in higher level incidents, and we must investigate and learn from them, but personal experience and industry historical data suggests the majority of lower level incidents do not have the potential to elevate to a higher level. The major contributing factor is the amount of energy that was available to be exchanged in the incident. The more energy involved, the greater the risk which leads to a greater potential for a higher level incident occurring The theory that preventing lower level incidents will automatically prevent the higher level incidents is misleading and can waste time and valuable resources.

I have not heard of a safety department anywhere that does not have limited resources to devote to safety. I suggest spending the majority of time and money on the incidents, hazards and tasks that involve the most potential energy. Mitigate hazards and write step-by-step procedures for every task that involve the most energy to ensure worker safety. Wasting finite resources investigating and trying to fit all incidents into set ratios has proven to be unrealistic.

So, taking care of pennies does not always lead to the dollars taking care of themselves.

This is just another example of "Thinking Outside The Box".

Job Well Done!!