Citation

Rajala HK, Vayrynen S. Safety Sci. 2010; 48(10): 1393-1401.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ssci.2010.05.014

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Finland has high accident rates in engineering and structural metal work (ESMW). The rates were decreasing for many years, but in recent years the positive trend has stopped or the rates have even increased. The attention paid to the prevention of accidents has been inconstant, although, there have recently been many good efforts. The leading Finnish international metal industry companies are increasingly investing in safety and health issues, along with overall management. The objective of this paper was to assess occupational accidents among ESMW personnel by means of classification procedure and storytelling. Moreover, the specific aim was to draw an illustrative picture of accident occurrences by constructing chronological narratives. The material consists of accident reports (N = 345) that were drawn for obtaining financial compensations from insurance companies, based on losses due to injuries. The study showed that classification methods enabled a new way of constituting an illustrative chronological picture - a backbone for description around which the core story can be build - of the actual occurrence of an accident. Three of the most frequent chains of events, i.e., the backbones for the stories, covered approximately 30% of all accidents. Storytelling based on the revealed mainstream of accidents will provide a pragmatic concrete approach to boost safety management. Furthermore, the approach can easily be applied to enhancing safety communication and, thus, enhance the awareness of the personnel.