ACCIDENT PREVENTION, REGISTRATION and REPORTING

S. A. NAIK.

ACCIDENT
 Often we hear, it was an accident! it couldnt be helped. As far as accident victim is concerned, accidents have the following characteristics:characteristics:- unforeseeable unintended unexpected unplanned

LITTLE OXFORD DICTIONARY

An event without apparent cause, an unexpected event, an unintentional act, a mishap

UNIVERSITY OF ASTON
 HEALTH AND SAFETY UNIT at the university. an unexpected, unplanned events that occur through a combination of causes. It results in physical harm (injury or disease) to an individual, damage to property, a near miss, a loss, business interruption or any combination of these effects.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from these definitions that, in addition to the resultant cases of breach of law, most accidents present some loss to the organisation. The loss can be quantified in financial terms ( liability premiums, compensations, fines, business interruption, damage costs and production.

INCIDENT
An incident is a form of accident or situation that does not necessarily result in injury to people. Hence it is an undesired event that could result in loss, or one that could downgrade the efficiency of business operation, viz minor fire, flooding of warehouse or adverse product liability.

HAZARDS, DANGER and RISK

 Any strategy in preventing accidents at work must draw distinction between hazard, danger and , risk.

Hazard is defined as the result of a departure from the normal situation, which has the potential to cause death, injury, damage or loss. Danger is defined as liability or exposure to harm; a thing that causes peril. Risk is the probability of harm, damage or injury, or probability of a hazard leading to personal injury and the severity of that injury.

ASPECTS OF ACCIDENT
 Actual danger that exists at a particular point of time.  How people perceive and measure the risk.

ACCIDENTS HOW CAUSED

 Hazards lead to accidents.  Accidents do not happen they are caused.  The causes for accidents are traced to :: Unsafe act Unsafe equipment Unsafe condition Human behaviour Detection of unsafe acts and unsafe conditions at regular intervals become a necessary part of safety management.

HAZARDS
The hazards are classified as under:under:Mechanical Electrical Chemical Radiation In all these hazards some are visible and others invisible. Hence a hazard identification system (HIS) has to be prepared.

STEPS FOR HIS

STEP 1 List out all the statutory laws. Make a survey of the plant and compare the requirements with the ones implemented in the plant. Take action wherever necessary. This exercise has to be repeated once every year.

STEP 2
POST SURVEY PREPARE. Plant layout Layout of machinery and equipment List out hazardous and non hazardous List out essential services (elec, water, air, gas, etc.) List out materials, chemicals, radioactive. List of explosive and flammable locations of their storage and place of use.  List of various operations, processes, etc.  Write-ups on processes and operations. Write List of possible hazards.
      

STEP 3
DISCOVER THE HAZARDS Discover the visible and invisible hazards. Visible hazards: unguarded machinery, exposed gears, bad flooring, worn out tools, poor lighting, oil leaks, poor exhausts, poor storing systems. Invisible hazards: gas leaks, concentration of toxic/hazardous vapours, malfunction of machinery, poor electrical earthing.

STEP 3
DISCOVER THE HAZARDS Discover the visible and invisible hazards. Visible hazards: unguarded machinery, exposed gears, bad flooring, worn out tools, poor lighting, oil leaks, poor exhausts, poor storing systems. Invisible hazards: gas leaks, concentration of toxic/hazardous vapours, malfunction of machinery, poor electrical earthing.

STEP 3
The hazards can be discovered on these lines: InspectionInspection- plant inspection and safety sampling. Detection and monitoring systems Functional test of machinery and equipment Accident investigation Repair shop Stores consumption Shop feed back

ACIDDENT PREVENTION STRATEGY

 Strategies aimed at accident prevention be gearedgeared firstly under SAFE WORKPLACE strategies and  secondly under SAFE PERSON strategies.

SAFE WORKPLACE STRATEGIES

 These strategies are principally concerned with reducing or eliminating the dangers which threatened the safety of the workers.  These include: premises environment plant and machinery materials processes systems of work supervision and control training

SAFE PERSON STRATEGIES

These strategies Iinclude the following: personal protective equipment vulnerable groups unsafe behaviour personal hygiene maintaining awareness

MEANS OF PREVENTING ACCIDENTS

 Prohibition of processes and practices inherently dangerous is the only way to prevent accidents.  Viz: use of identified toxic substance.  Prohibiting people from carrying out unsafe practices  Substituting less dangerous material or system of work will in many cases, reduces accident potential.  Change of processes, design or process engineering can usually change a process to ensure better operator protection.  Process control: isolation of process, use of work permit system, mechanical or remote control handling system, restriction of operations to highly trained or competent operators and introduction of dust and fume arrestment plant.  Safe system of work with high level training, supervision and control.  PEP.

SAFE SYSTEM OF WORK

Safe system of work is defined as the integration of men, machine and materials in the correct environment to provide safest possible working conditions in a particular working area.

SAFE SYSTEM OF WORK

A safe system of work should incorporate the following features: * a correct sequence of operations * a safe working area layout * a controlled environment in terms of temperature, lighting, ventilation, dust control, humidity control, sound pressure levels and radiation hazards. *clear specification of the safe practices and procedures for the given task.

SAFETY MONITORING SYSTEM

It is concerned with the measurement and evaluation of safety performance. It may be in the form of:of:safety surveys safety tours safety audits safety inspections safety samplings hazard and operability studies damage control

REGISTRATION
Under the Factories act 1948, the occupier or the Manager of a factory coming within the scope of the Act has to apply to the Chief Inspector of Factories for getting the factory registered and obtaining a licence for it.

COMPULSORY DISCLOSURE
Under S 41-B the occupier of the factory involving a 41hazardous process shall disclose in the manner prescribed all information regarding dangers, including health hazards and the measures to overcome these hazards arising from the exposure to or handling of the materials in the manufacture, transportation, storage and other processes, to the workers employed, the chief Inspector and the local authority of that area and the general public in the vicinity. He has to draw an on site as well as an off- site plan offin the event of an accident and make it known to all concerned including the public in the vicinity.

REPORTING
Under S 88 of the Act. If an accident occurs which causes death or which causes any bodily injury by reason of which the person injured is prevented from working for a period of 48 hours or more immediately following the accident or which is of such nature as may be prescribed in this behalf the manager of the factory shall send the notice thereof to such authorities and in such form and within such time as may be prescribed. This may trigger an inquiry within one month of the receipt of such notice. Form 24 prescribed under rule 115 of the Maharashtra Factory Rules, 1963is used by the Manager to send the Notification within 24 hours of the occurrence.

REPORTING
The Notice as foresaid shall be send to:to:the District Magistrate or Sub-Divisional Magistrate. Subthe Officer-in-Charge of the nearest police station and Officer-inthe nearest relative of the injured or dead person. if a injured person dies subsequently, the information of the death has to be send by the Manager by telephone, messenger or telegram within 24 hours to:to:the Inspector the Adm Medical Officer, ESIS the District Magistrate or Sub- Div Magistrate Subthe officer-icharge officer-

REPORTING
 Form 24A is used for notice of dangerous occurrence  Form 25 is used to notifying poisoning of disease.  Form 30 rule 123 prescribes a formatfor register of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrence.