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Topic area 2: Accident prevention

Estimated Duration: 1 Hour

To outline the difference between reactive and proactive means of accident prevention;

To provide a genera overview of the different means of accident prevention measures used in industry today;
To define the hierarchy of risk control.

1 Reactive/Proactive accident prevention.

Reactive – the traditional management approach – the prevention of repetitions of accidents that have already occurred.
Pro-active – the prevention of accidents before they have chance to occur.

2 Hierarchy of risk control

Eliminate all risks by substituting the dangerous by the less dangerous;
Combating risks at source by engineering controls (guards, interlocks etc.) and giving collective protective measures priority;
Minimising risks by the design of suitable systems of work (training, rules, procedures, supervision etc.)
Using personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety equipment as a last resort.
Risk control is more effective /more costly up the hierarchy
PPE reduces the severity of a potential accident rather than the likelihood, hence its position in the hierarchy.