Citation

Verhaegen P, Strubbe J, Vonck R, Van Den Abeele J. J. Occup. Accid. 1985; 7(3): 177-186.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1985, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

In a seminal study Hill and Trist (1953) found a relationship between accidents and absenteeism. This relationship was confirmed in a series of statistical analyses, carried out at different times in five different firms and involving data of hundreds of accidents. This relationship was especially significant for accidents in which the victim had been active. One plausible explanation is that active accident victims display a more negative attitude towards their firm and its safety rules. So, they ignore some of these rules, which leads to more risk taking in their work. This explanation was confirmed by an interview and questionnaire study of ten accident-free workers, ten workers who had had an accident in which they had been passive, and ten workers who had been victims of an accident in which they had been active.