Please remember, these principles were proposed over 100 years ago! Mr. Heinrich may not have been 100% correct in all his beliefs, but I would go as far as to say that if a business today were to embrace his principles from the 1920s, it would see significant improvements in both culture and performance.
Industrial executives do not need to know all the details of an accident prevention method, but they should understand the basic principles, and these are as follows:
- The total cost of accidents to industry is several times (4 times) greater than the total cost of compensation, medical aid, and hospital fees.
- An unsafe warehouse is invariably an inefficient warehouse, and vice versa.
- Management is primarily responsible for the occurrence of accidents.
- Management has both the responsibility and the opportunity to control accident occurrence.
- There are invariably one or both of only two conditions or circumstances that cause each accident, no matter what kind of accident it is. One is a person’s unsafe act; the other is the existence of a medical or physical hazard.
- At least 50% of all accidents are practically preventable, and at least 98% are preventable except for monetary or other practical considerations.
- A certain minimum of orderly, systematic procedures involving programs, committees, inspections, investigations, and analysis is advisable. However, this procedure should be purposeful and should not be relied on to achieve results unless it is recognized not as prevention itself but merely as the medium or machinery whereby prevention is achieved.
- Accident prevention is the work of finding, and then eliminating or correcting, the personal mechanical hazards that will in all probability cost future accidents.
- Obviously, the more important personal and mechanical hazard should be selected for first attention. This requires the services of trained safety engineers.
- In the average case, the unsafe act of a person that finally results in a serious injury has been committed by the injured person more than 300 times. This indicates that there is a greater opportunity for good management and supervision to correct matters before the injury occurs.
- Unsafe acts of persons caused the great majority of industrial injuries, but mechanical hazards are also important and the corrections should be a first in continuing step in all industrial operations.
- Accident prevention is easy and simple. It should be an inherent part of business management and should be recognized and treated as such by top executives on par with sales, production, accounting, and other phases of the business.
- The methods of controlling accident occurrence are identical to those used in controlling production, quality, and volume.
Source: H.W. Heinrich, The Warehouseman’s Safety Problem, Travelers, 1943
MANY THANKS to Carsten Busch for his Book “The Heinrich Project III – The Travelers Papers”