“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,”
is a quote attributed to philosopher George Santayana. This statement is true of most educational undertakings, including the risk management field. If you think about it, nearly every single code, regulation, or safety standard ever written originates from an initial incident. Something caused an injury, fire, or explosion. Leading safety specialists to say, “We need a rule to prevent this incident and subsequent injuries from happening again.” Therein lies the beginning of safety standard development. Ultimately, learning from mistakes leads to the prevention of injuries.
The origins of many school district security measures derived from the study of the 1999 incident in Columbine, Colorado. New York state municipal safety and workplace violence regulations improved because of the 1992 incident in Schuyler County. Lessons have been learned from the unfortunate violent incidents in school districts and municipal centers since.
Similarly, Comp Alliance members can take account of their workplace injuries and implement corrective actions to prevent reoccurring incidents. As a risk management department, we focus on assisting our members in avoiding workplace injuries through diligent safety inspections and training programs. However, we understand that incidents contributing to employee injuries may arise.
When a work-related injury occurs, an investigation will follow. They can take a few minutes, hours, days, or weeks but, ultimately, they are in place to understand the cause and get that condition corrected to mitigate the loss and prevent further injuries. The investigation, therefore, is part of the learning process of the incident.
Part of a post-accident investigation intended to correct the unsafe condition is mitigation. It may be necessary to implement one, two, or several controls. Mitigation might look like re-training an employee, repairing or retrofitting equipment, improving facility security, or adding personal protective equipment.
Understanding the likelihood of workplace injuries and learning from these incidents will go a long way in contributing to a workplace free of known hazards where workers utilize situational awareness to avoid injuries to themselves and others. Focus on learning from mistakes now to prevent injuries in the future!