Conducting an Accident Investigation
Course 102
Safety Certified Supervisor Series

MODULE 4: ANALYZING THE ACCIDENT PROCESS

Why accidents happen

Over the past century, safety professionals have tried to more effectively explain how and why accidents occur. As you will see, their explanations were at first rather simplistic. Theorists gradually realized that it was not sufficient to explain away workplace accidents as simple cause-effect events. They developed new theories that better explained the complicated interaction among conditions, behaviors and systems that result in an accident.

Let's take a look at some of these theories.