Safe by Accident

Safe by Accident

Summary

The book “Safe By Accident?” which is written by Judy Agnew and Aubrey Daniels provides a broader view of the occupational health and safety concerns that are avoidable but still tend to occur across all industries. This is certainly highlighted by the catastrophe that took place at the mines of West Virginia and Gulf of Mexico, as they reflected poor safety leadership. The book also raises a very important question regarding safety that why are safety measure so hard to implement.

It also acknowledges the attempts and efforts of various businesses in order to the growing problem of lack of safety at work, by indulging and involving in the safety programs, safety practices and purchase of specialized equipments. The book also emphasizes on a very important issue that if a company has low incident rate that does not necessarily confirm that the organization is secure and safe. It also makes it quite certain that after rigorous efforts and improvements, the unsafe conditions at work have been minimized to a great extent and hazardous condition at work have become very rare. The book also states that if a business survives for years without any incident, is solely based on sheer luck.

As the book itself is written by Judy Agnew who is a Sr. Vice President at Aubrey Daniels International of Safety Solutions and by Aubrey Daniels who possesses immense knowledge regarding the behavioral science involved at a work place which makes the book more reliable and authentic. They make the catastrophes of last year that occurred at the mines of West Virginia and Gulf of Mexico their main basis in the book, to reflect the incompetence of the businesses and their compliance with healthy and safety regulations and policies. The authors view their opinions in an impressive way by stating that changes and flexibly in behavior are more important and critical than the equipment and safety programs installed. They emphasize more on the behavioral changes, and give a little less consideration to safety programs in comparison to behavior of workers.

The main problem highlighted in the book that leads to unsafe circumstances is the conflict of interest between business and its workers. They state that a trade-off between safety and productivity is a part of this growing problem. Profit is generated from productivity and nobody cares if the gold purchased it coming from a mine which is safe or unsafe. It is very important to understand that the workers are trained to increase productivity and this influences their behavior at work, which often increases the concerns of health and safety issue. They often tend to ignore these concerns as their behavior is conditioned to make productivity their first priority. On the contrary if the worker files a safety concern, I might be rejected and they may face reprisals. This negatively reinforces good behavior. The authors of the book also warn regarding the incentives which are based on incident numbers and rates.

They also support their argument by using ...