Citation

Edwards DS, Hahn CP. J. Saf. Res. 1980; 12(2): 59-67.

Affiliation

American Institutes for Research in the Behavioral Sciences, Washington, DC

Copyright

(Copyright © 1980, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A new type of plant safety indexes described, relating to accidents and injuries to safety attitudes of workers and to observed unsafe acts and conditions existing in the workplace. In a study of over 4000 workers and supervisors in munitions plants, the frequency of observations by workers of unsafe acts and conditions correlated 0.61 with accidents and 0.55 with disabling injuries, but only 0.16 with person-hours worked. Accidents and person-hours correlated 0.30. These data suggest that accidents happen where they have a chance to happen -- where people report the existence of unsafe acts and conditions.