By: Shawn Galloway and Terry Mathis
Recorded: 14 September 2008
Welcome to Safety Culture Excellence®. Today’s topic: Accident or Incident? What is the Difference? My name is Shawn Galloway, and I’m proud to be your host.
Well, hello, this week from Avon Lake, a picturesque community located about 20 minutes from Cleveland and on the banks of Lake Erie. Well, this week, I took another one of our great questions sent by one of the subscribers out there. And, thanks again, you know who you are. And I presented it to Terry Mathis for his response.
Shawn Galloway:
So, Terry, glad we have some time to get back together again. I have a question from somebody, and this is one of those philosophical questions. But: accident or incident? Which term is right? Which term is preferred? Why the difference?
Terry Mathis:
Well, first of all, there is no common usage. The term ‘accident’ is probably still used by more folks than the term ‘incident’. And one of the main dichotomies I see out there in the world is that a lot of people call it an ‘accident’ if it involved an injury. They call it an ‘incident’ if it only involved property damage. But there are some experts out there in the world who are suggesting that the word ‘accident’ is a counterproductive word. That using the word ‘accident’ assumes that it’s unpreventable, assumes that it was unintentional, that it can’t be controlled, that things are under the control of others other than ourselves.
I understand the argument, and I believe the philosophy behind why they want to say it that way. But I still don’t agree with it, and this is the reason I don’t agree with it. The reality of safety is that there are low probability risks out there in the workplace. And low probability risks are, first of all, difficult to identify because they’re not common. So, we don’t figure them out with common sense. Experience, the other thing that teaches us, experientially learning low probability risk is a totally reactive activity. You find out after you get hurt, and you say, “Yeah, I see how that works now.” But, it’s too late at that point.
So, what we’re talking about is, “Is there a probability aspect to safety?” And I think in all reality there is. You can take the high probability risks out of your workplace, and you can identify the safe behaviors, and try to instill those in your workplace. But, in the middle, there is a low probability risk that really does have a luck factor to it. If you’re going to do something that has a low probability risk, you are counting on luck to not get hurt. And when your luck runs out, you have an accident.
Shawn Galloway:
And I agree with you. Sometimes I see that the unfortunate side-effect is a communication comes out and says that there are no accidents, when in reality, as you know, most people are going to work trying not to get injured using their common sense, using their experience. But what happens, unfortunately, is accidental.
Terry Mathis:
Absolutely. And I would suggest that all of us have accidents. Now, again, this depends on your definition of the word ‘accident’. But, to me, the one that I have internalized, and there’s several of them out there, by the way. But the way I have internalized is that ‘an accident is an unintentional outcome.’ I did something thinking it was going to turn out a certain way and it didn’t turn out that way. It turned out a radically different and undesirable way than the way that I intended. So, my action didn’t produce the desired outcome. So, I said, “Ooh, I did that accidentally. I didn’t do it deliberately. I didn’t do it purposely.”
Now, again, wherever we don’t see all of the potential outcomes of our behavioral choices, there are the possibilities for accidents. I have a friend who accidentally married the wrong person. I have a friend who accidentally studied the wrong thing in college and got into a job he really doesn’t like. Now, you can call that an ‘incident’, you can call that a ‘misjudgment’, you can call it whatever you want. But the bottom line is, he thought it was going to turn out a certain way and that’s not the way it turned out.
Do you know how many workers out there have done a job hundreds of times, and it’s always turned out the same way? And today they did it, and there was some little variable in the formula that had never happened before that did this particular time, and it turned out radically different. This wasn’t a stupid person who made a stupid mistake. This was a person with a lot of experience who was doing it the way they had always done it. And they had just not ever pressed that combination of keys before, and they got something that they didn’t realize could happen. I think calling it an ‘accident’ is perfectly legitimate.”
Until next time, remember: “In safety, prevention trumps reaction.” For more information on Safety Culture Excellence®, or if you have a topic to suggest, please email us at podcast @ proactsafety.com.