Accident causation, prevention and safety management: a review of the state-of-the-art

According to the International Labour Organization some 2.3 million diseases and 474 million accidents are experienced annually by workplaces. The associated social and economic costs of these accidents and diseases, which are estimated at 4 percent of Global Gross Product, are expected to increase further as our next generation of workers continues to face challenges from a range of quarters. Managing these costs, therefore, continues to be a challenge for policy makers, practitioners and academics involved in accident prevention and safety management. A possible reason for this dire state of affairs is that developments in safety management have been outpaced by technological advancements, and more innovations are needed. This requires us to re-think the way organizations manage safety. Doing this, however, requires us to have a much better understanding of how accidents are caused, how they can be prevented and how safety can be managed in organizations. This paper attempts to do this through a review of the state-of-the-art, by revisiting our current understanding of how accidents are caused and how they can be prevented and managed. First, it introduces a scheme known as the three eras of safety. This is followed by a review of published papers in accident causation and safety management, which are analysed using a three-step approach based on the scheme introduced. The paper concludes by proposing research questions that policy makers, practitioners and academics may want to think about in advancing the accident prevention and safety management agenda.