Facilitator's Notes
What causes an accident at work?
This link takes you to the Facilitator's Notes containing practical advice based on our experience of running pilots of this Activity Workshop.
Activity Five Facilitator's Notes : What causes an accident at work?
The following sheet is designed to give facilitators a series of example conversation prompts which can be quickly referred to during the workshop. The list is not designed to be not exhaustive, and after some experience with running the workshops you can always add to it with prompts that you are more comfortable with.
What causes an accident at work? (PDF 35kb)
Activity Five : What causes an accident at work?
Aim
There are a wide range of risk factors which can lead to an accident. Some of these are ‘immediate' factors and would occur just before an accident, others are ‘underpinning' factors, which might have occurred sometime previously.
For example, a driver may be fatigued on a journey which could cause immediate factors of an accident such as inattention or falling asleep behind the wheel – however the underpinning factors which caused the fatigue might be lack of sleep or poor time management.
Often, despite best intentions, prioritising goals which conflict with safer driving can lead to a failure to manage risks and risky behaviours.
For example, on a journey a driver may wish to arrive by a preset time, and to arrive safely – however if the driver is delayed they may decide to take more risks in order to make up the time, making it less likely that they will arrive safely. This is how two goals for a journey come into conflict.
Early planning of journeys can reduce or eliminate some of the risk factors and resolve the potential for conflicting goals.
The aims of this section are to add to the knowledge of accident causation factors, and show that decisions which could cause an accident can be made long before it occurs. It also aims to encourage delegates to consider what different goals they place on themselves, and whether they make any assumptions when prioritising them.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the activity, participants will be able to
- List several causes of accidents (immediate and underpinning)
- Determine how additional pressures at work can lead to safety being sacrificed and result in more risky driving behaviour at work
- List several different ‘goals' behind a successful journey and explain how these goals can sometimes come into conflict
- Specify how some of the examples of goal conflict can be resolved
- Identify how their employer can be a source of support when putting these strategies into place
Timing
15-25 minutes
Resources
Flipchart
Accident description and STATS 19 form of the accident (samples provided below)
Copies of the company's MORR policy
Activity Plan
| LO Ref |
Facilitator Activity |
Participant Activity |
Assessment |
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Ask the delegates to remain in their groups of 3 or 4 for this exercise.
Pass round a scenario of an at-work accident, along with a copy of a STATS 19 form describing the accident. The accident description and circumstances should be similar to the at-work driving which the delegates do. Two sample accident investigations are provided in below.
The scenarios give the delegates some knowledge of the preceding day of the accident and of the character's background. This allows participants to identify underpinning factors behind the immediate causes of the accident. |
Read handout materials.
Discussion in smaller groups. |
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Ask the delegates to discuss in their groups what factors may have increased the risk of the accident and ultimately caused it, and how the accident could be prevented. |
Discuss causes of the accident. |
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| (1) |
After 10 minutes (allowing time for delegates to read as well as discuss) ask the groups to report back on the factors which they think caused the accident.
As the individual groups report back, write the answers in two columns on a flip chart, underpinning factors on the left and immediate factors on the right (see the image in the facilitator's notes for example). |
Report back & discuss on how the accident was caused. |
Completion of list of accident causes. |
| (2) |
Then ask the groups to say what could have been done to prevent the accident, and again write them down in the same format. In larger groups you may wish to ask one or two groups to report on the causal factors and the other one or two groups to report on preventative factors in order to prevent repetition.
Explain the role of immediate and underpinning accident factors, and that a decision to prevent an accident could be made in advance. At this point, show slides illustrating a wider range of immediate and underpinning factors and explain how they link to each other (for example, poor journey planning may lead to inappropriate speeds as the driver tries to make up the time). |
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| (3) |
Introduce the role of conflicting goals during a journey, and explain that how we assess their relative importance can also have an influence on our accident risk (for example, a journey goal is to arrive safely, but this may conflict with trying to arrive on time).
Encourage delegates to identify the conflicting goals in the accident investigation scenario they were given, and how the driver prioritised them. |
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| (4) |
Facilitators can use the example to show how, despite best intentions, the prioritisation of goals which conflict with safer driving can lead to a failure to manage risks and risky behaviours - driving somewhere whilst thinking about getting to the meeting on time, can lead to driving safely being given a lower status than the perceived need to get there on time. |
Discuss how the conflicting goals resulted in an accident. |
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| (5) |
Finally, ask the delegates what the organisation could do to prevent the accident. Stress again that organisations have a duty of care.
Then go through the main points of the company's Work Related Road Safety Policy policy (which you have obtained in advance) relating it back to how it can help the delegates to manage different goals. |
Give examples on how an organisation can act to prevent an accident. |
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Accident Investigation Scenarios
Accident Scenario 1a (one point of view)
John, 23, works as a delivery driver for a medium-sized business making around 20 drops a day around Reading. Most of the drops are to customers in Reading but occasionally there are trips out to Maidstone, Newbury and Basingstoke. He'd had the job for six months; before that he worked in a warehouse of a major retailer.
It's a Friday in mid-November during a gloomy overcast week. It rained overnight but there was no rain during the day. It had been a long busy week for John, with a few late nights where he'd stayed up to watch Family Guy on BBC3 and a few early mornings when he'd got up early to go to the gym.
John had meant to get up early to go to the gym on Friday, but the week had caught up with him a bit so he took the extra hour in bed. He justified that by thinking he needed the extra few minutes to make sure he didn't feel sleepy later that night when he was going to head out into town; it was gloomy outside anyway.
When John got into work he had another busy day with 15 drops, one out towards the other side of Basingstoke, which John decided he'd do last. He preferred it when all of the drops were in the same area because that made it easier to get home early.
John was ‘encouraged' by work to complete all of the drops in the same day anyway.
At about 3pm John arrived in Basingstoke to do his delivery, although as he didn't know the area it took a good half hour of driving round with the A-Z open on the passenger seat. John didn't want to be involved in an accident -no one does!- so he always pulled over or waited until he stopped at a red light before looking at the A-Z.
Getting back through Basingstoke John hit the school traffic, which held him up for another half hour before getting onto the clear A road back to Reading. There would still be time to get back home before 5pm.
On the road there is an unsignposted bend to the right, which John failed to react to quickly enough. Steering sharply to turn the corner, the van oversteers and the rear end slides out towards the side of the road. Panicking, John turns to correct the skid and over-corrects it, sliding into the other side of the road at the end of a long straight.
The van hits a small wall by the side of the carriageway which damages the front of the vehicle. Although John was wearing his seat belt, the rotation of the van and the sudden stop meant that John hit his head on the interior of the vehicle and felt quite dizzy. His arm also hit the side of the steering wheel and ached.
Because the vehicle and some of the debris from the wall were blocking the carriageway, the police were called to attend the scene of the accident and recorded details.
What were the factors that led John to fail to cope with the environment?
What could John have done differently which would have prevented the accident?
Accident Scenario 1b (two points of view)
Driver 1: (John, 23) John works as a delivery driver for a medium-sized business making around 20 drops a day around Reading. Most of the drops are to customers in Reading but occasionally there are trips out to Maidstone, Newbury and Basingstoke. He'd had the job for six months; before that he worked in a warehouse of a major retailer.
It's a Friday in mid-November during a gloomy overcast week, it rained overnight but there was no rain during the day. It had been a long busy week for John, with a few late nights where he'd stayed up to watch Family Guy on BBC3 and a few early mornings when he'd got up early to go to the gym.
John had meant to get up early to go to the gym on Friday, but the week had caught up with him a bit so he took the extra hour in bed. He justified that by thinking he needed the extra few minutes to make sure he didn't feel sleepy later that night when he was going to head out into town; it was gloomy outside anyway.
When John got into work he had another busy day with 15 drops, one out towards the other side of Basingstoke, which John decided he'd do last. He preferred it when all of the drops were in the same area because that made it easier to get home early.
John was ‘encouraged' by work to complete all of the drops in the same day anyway.
At about 3pm John arrived in Basingstoke to do his delivery, although as he didn't know the area it took a good half hour of driving round with the A-Z open on the passenger seat. John didn't want to be involved in an accident - no one does! - so he always pulled over or waited until he stopped at a red light before looking at the A-Z.
Getting back through Basingstoke John hit the school traffic, which held him up for another half hour before getting onto the clear A road back to Reading. There would still be time to get back home before 5pm.
On the road there is an unsignposted bend to the right, which John failed to react to quickly enough. Steering sharply to turn the corner, the van oversteers and the rear end slides out towards the side of the road. Panicking, John turns to correct the skid and over-corrects it, sliding into the other side of the road at the end of a long straight.
The van hits an oncoming van causing damage to both vehicles. Although John was wearing his seat belt, the rotation of the van and the sudden stop meant that John hit his head on the interior of the vehicle and felt quite dizzy. His arm also hit the side of the steering wheel and ached.
Because the vehicles and some of the debris were blocking the carriageway, the police were called to attend the scene of the accident and recorded details. An ambulance was also called as the other driver was in shock.
What were the factors that led John to fail to cope with the environment?
What could John have done differently which would have prevented the accident?
Driver 2: (Dave, 18) Dave passed his driving test six months ago and his own car was in the garage for its MOT. Dave had been ill with an upset stomach and had not eaten very much over the last three days.
As Dave's car was in the garage he was borrowing his father's light van. Dave was going to pick his father up from work and then drive to the garage to collect his own car.
As Dave was about to leave his house a friend called him to find out where he had been lately as he had missed a night out. After catching up with his friend, Dave was running behind time and did not want to be late collecting his father as the garage shuts at half past five and he needed his car back for the next day.
Dave got caught up in a tailback behind a tractor and trailer. Dave was frustrated by the line of cars behind who were not overtaking even though the road was clear, and he was now 10 minutes late. Dave was still feeling unwell and wanted to finish his journey as quickly as possible. He saw that there was no oncoming traffic and overtook three small cars as well as the tractor and trailer.
Dave had calculated that there was just enough time to return to the correct side of the road before the bend. Unfortunately he had not predicted John losing control from the opposite direction and the two vans collided in the middle of the carriageway.
What were the factors that led to Dave crashing into John?
What could Dave have done differently that might have prevented the accident?
Accident Scenario 2
Natalie, 23, works in sales for a large national company. Her job didn't involve much driving for work, but occasionally Nat drove to one of the company's other offices or to visit a client. Mostly clients' offices were in city centres or suburbs and could involve several hours' driving, mainly on motorways or larger A roads.
Nat had passed her test on the first attempt when she was 17 although didn't have a car when she went to university in Newcastle. It was a luxury she couldn't afford at the time, even with her part-time job behind the bar. Having said that, she'd made up for that lack of experience recently driving around 30,000 miles every year – mainly for her job but also going up the A1 back to Newcastle on occasional weekends to see friends. The weekend before the accident she had done just that, and got back at 3am on Monday morning.
On the Tuesday morning, Nat was up bright and early to make the trip from York to Coventry to see a client. Her work had lent her one of the pool cars the day before to make the trip, rather than her usual car.
The meeting was at 10:30 am just outside of Coventry city centre; planning for traffic, Nat left the house at 7am. It was good she planned for a bit of traffic too, as an overturned lorry on the opposite side of the M1 had meant a lane was shut. Frustratingly, this meant that she couldn't make her usual stop at Woolley Edge services if she was going to get there on time.
Getting into Coventry was easy, finding the client's building was not, and at 10:20 Nat was still trying to find their offices. Pulling up at a set of lights at a crossroads, she decided to have a look at her map on the sat nav to find out where she'd been going wrong.
The sat nav said she should go right, luckily the lane that Nat was in allowed her to go straight on and turn right so Nat waited for the lights to change, checked her mirrors, and then pulled out into the junction to turn right when they changed to green. There was one other car ahead of her waiting to turn right which Nat nudged up right behind.
After a while waiting the traffic opposite stopped and the car ahead turned right. Nat followed the car round only for it to suddenly brake after it had cleared the junction. Nat slammed on her brakes too, but it wasn't enough to bring the car to a complete stop, and she hit the back of the car in front, which had hit the back of a taxi that had pulled over at the side of the road to drop off a disabled passenger.
All three cars were damaged and the one in front of Nat had damage to its front and rear and couldn't be driven. The driver of the car in front wasn't wearing his seat belt and had hit his knees under the steering wheel. He had trouble standing up after the crash and so an ambulance was called to take him to hospital and the police attended the scene to fill out an accident report.
Nat did not need hospital attention but did develop an uncomfortable pain in her neck for a few days the morning after the collision.
What could Nat have done to prevent the accident?
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