Heinrich did not blame workers for accidents—quite the opposite. He was more in the camp of Latent Organizational Failures, as James Reason taught us in the 1980s. In this passage from his 1928 article “The Origin of Accidents”, Travelers, we can see his position on accidents on full display…
Remember, he said this 96 years ago!!!
“The conditions under which 98% of all industrial accidents are preventable are not impracticable of attainment, nor are they expensive or complicated, yet it is too much to expect that the fundamentals will be immediately and universally grasped. Making due allowances for existing difficulties, we nevertheless are convinced that the recognition of the principles herein involved, namely,
1) 98% of all accidents are preventable
2) 88% of the causes of all accidents are supervisory, and 10% are physical (both within the power of the employer to remedy)
3) Basic causes must be the guide to preventive action,
4) all accidents (including minor cases) should be recorded and analyzed, will within a period of a few years, make possible a reduction of 50% in the industrial accident frequency of the country.”
H.W. Heinrich, The Origin of Accidents, Travelers, 1928
MANY THANKS to Carsten Busch for his Book “The Heinrich Project III – The Travelers Papers”
