It is strange that we go after people for accidents in the workplace, on the road, at sea and in the air. We have created an environment of fear by turning human error into a crime. When someone fails or makes a mistake, we have created a social structure of punishment. This article has been written to remind readers that the concept of “accident” is relatively new.
It wasn’t until the 16th century that we had any use for a concept like accident. There were many events of daily life for which the population had no explanation. All unforeseen events could be explained through religion, superstition, witchcraft, and magic. All misfortunes could be attributed to things like fate, God’s will, and the general whims of life. What we now call accidents were believed to be random and totally uncontrollable.
With the arrival of the 20th century, the population began to see accidents as unfortunate events that occurred as a result of coincidences. They were still considered random and impossible to control, but not attributable to religion or superstition. Efforts to predict or control accidents were deemed futile.
However, over the last half century, we have completely changed the way we think about accidents. Events like Exxon Valdez, Chernobyl, the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion, 3 Mile Island, the Union Carbide accident in India, etc., have created a completely different view of accidents and blame. This has trickled down into our legislation and we no longer view accidents as random events; we see that accidents are caused by human faults. With that we have also brought guilt. It’s almost like we have to take revenge on people who have made a bad decision.
When we look at our workplaces, we see a similar situation. If a person on a construction site makes an error in judgment and insults himself or another person, the employer is guilty. This means that they are prosecuted for the error of judgment (a risk management failure) of a worker. This is a legal response with criminal overtones to the result of a bad trial. If there were no physical result for bad judgment, it is unlikely that there would be a case to answer.
We know that people don’t go to work to hurt themselves. They have no intention of causing pain when they go out in the morning. Nor are they intended to create a situation where your employer could be prosecuted and fined for violating codes and regulations. The worker has no intention, but in the event of a result such as an accident as a result of poor judgment, he and the employer are blamed.
Given this situation, it is not surprising that our attempts to create safer workplaces have failed in this environment of blaming the victim.