Accident Prevention Strategies: Causation Model and Research Directions

This paper presents an accident causation model that identifies the production system factors affecting the accident process, and proposes accident prevention strategies. The model builds on descriptive rather than prescriptive theories of work behavior and acknowledges the inevitability of exposures and errors. It also focuses on the operation as the level of analysis—that is, it focuses on the factors that influence the number of accidents during a construction operation. The model first identifies the production factors that affect the frequency of hazards during a construction activity, and emphasizes the importance of task unpredictability. Then we examine how the production pressures and the tendency to minimize effort increase the workers' efficient behaviors and their exposure to hazards, while safety efforts try to prevent such exposures. Finally, the model acknowledges that exposure to hazards only leads to accidents, if errors or changes in the situation "release" the hazard. Based on this conceptualization of the accident process, the paper proposes accident prevention strategies that do not focus on compliance with safety rules: (1) reduce task unpredictability to reduce the frequency of hazards; (2) improve the work conditions to enable more productive behaviors without increasing the safety risk, and (3) develop error management strategies to prevent, trap and mitigate the consequences of errors. These strategies provide direction for safety research.