The Three Theories Of Accident Cusation And Safety Problems

Three theories of accident causation can be used to explain possible safety problems. Human factor theory is commonly used to explain accident causal by examining chain of events that can be traced to human error. Human factor theory focusses on three areas: overload, wrong activities, and wrong response. Human factor theory thus states that human error is the ultimate cause of safety problems. First, human error can happen because of overload. Overload is the imbalance between capacity and time. Capacity means a person’s mental and physical ability including state of health, knowledge and skills at any given time. Load, on the other hand, refers to tasks for which an individual is required to perform including additional burden resulting from …show more content…
Without proper training on incident response, the likelihood to cause accident when responding to incident is high. While students are briefly trained on workplace safety issues, the training does not cover incident response. For example, the lab does not provide to student manual for incident response. In this regard, students are likely to form their own judgments which can lead to confusion and consequently accidents. Some students are also likely to disregard safety rules when not being monitored due to low supervisor to student ratio. Also, since the lab has technicians responsible for the safety of the workplace and procedure for handling hazardous cases is documented, there is high likelihood that if a student detects hazardous condition he or she might fail to correct it. This increases likelihood of accident to happen in case lab officials do not detect it in time. Workplace incompatibility also explains reasons for human error. The size of the workstation is relatively small to accommodate many engineering students thereby increasing chances of injuries. Finally, human error can happen as a result of wrong activity. Wrong activity is largely a result of misjudge risks, inadequate training and desire to err albeit unconsciously. Because new students are still not adequately trained on the safety procedures, there are high chances that they …show more content…
System theory, as opposed to chain events theories is concern with system as a whole in analyzing the possible safety problems. While human factor theory emphasizes on human error has the main cause for occupational safety problems, system theory model consider the possibility of accident happening due to action or inaction of any of the system’s components. System, here, means a group of components that are related and work together to accomplish a particular task. The system theory model has three key components: human, machine and environment. Human factors include stress, training and ability to make sound judgements when operating machine or simply when inside the workshop. Students and supervisor in this case are the humans. First, students if not well trained on safety procedures and how to operate the machines are likely to cause accidents. Also, student mental state when in the workshop plays acritical factor in making decisions and weighing risks. Another aspect is the pressure from the supervisors may increase level of anxiety and stress in students, especially new students thereby reducing their mental ability to make sound judgements. Pressure to complete assignment may increase the likelihood of accident occurring. In addition, internal factors such as stress, fatigue and drowsiness may affect student when collecting information on safety instructions and how to operate machine. Safety problems are