Safety and Accident

To what extent do you believe human error causes occupational injuries and illnesses? Discuss one specific way that you believe human error can be decreased in occupational settings.

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Scott

This has been a topic we have been discussing at work a lot recently. Within my division, we have had a small outbreak of recordable injuries.  Mostly involving hand and fingers and lacerations. the majority of the injury happened shortly after the economic shutdown from COVID-19. with all the news coverage and information going out about COVID-19 everyone's minds are on other topics. With the three recordable's I had in two weeks all were hand injuries and all of the needed sutures to close the wounds.  I believe all three could have been avoided had the employee been aware of what they were doing.

one incident involved crossing the hands while fastening a bolt with a washer attached.  The washer caught the tip of the finger as it seated in place and pinched the tip needing stitches to close the wound. The second involved an employee placing their hand ion the attachment of a forklift.  They were pocked by a metal burr that was 3/4 of an inch long.  As they removed their hand the burr caused a laceration just under the thumb.  Again stitches were needed to close the wound. The third involved an employee slicing their thumb on a grinder blade they were changing.  again stitches were needed to close the wound.  The rest of the division had very similar incidents. all within a month's time.

Human error whether it is complacency or just employee error has a very large role in workplace accidents and illnesses. OSHA requires certain things to be done.  We try to train and explain the whys and why not's of safety. At the end of the day, it is the employee making choices that put them in a bad situation which causes an injury.  All of the employee injuries I mention above had more than one year on the Job. most of the incidents I see that end up in a life-changing situation or long term employees and had been in their assignment for many years.