Monday, June 18, 2018

Incident versus Accident

There are 2 most common definitions of incident and accident: 1) accident as a type of incident and 2) accident and incident as two different kinds of event.

1. Accident as a type of incident
An incident is defined as an unplanned event that resulted or could have resulted in personal injuries or illness and/or property damage. There are 2 sub-categories of incident: accident and near-miss. An accident is an incident that resulted in personal injuries or illness, whereas a near-miss is an incident that resulted or could have resulted in property damage but without personal injuries or illness.

2. Accident and incident as two different kinds of event
An accident is defined as an unplanned event that resulted in personal injuries or illness, whereas an incident can be a near-miss or an undesired circumstance. In an incident, personal injuries or illness could potentially but not actually happen however property damage may occur and the event was worthy of recording and reporting. 

In both definitions, incident and accident are unplanned and undesired, however the supported mindset is not the same. Accident supports the mindset that it could not have been prevented while incident does not. When an event is accepted as an accident, it has no clear causes and is expected to happen again which is opposite to what a HAZOP aims to do. When a HAZOP (hazard and operability study) is carried out, it aims to prevent incidents (or near-misses according to the first definition) from happening or reoccurring. 

A near-miss in both cases is a type of incident that did not resulted in personal injuries or illness, however if given a different set of conditions, it could have. A near-miss when left unnoticed can lead to an actual accident without proper preparation and prevention hence it is important to properly report every near-miss.

Therefore, despite the fact that incidents, accidents and near-misses may be defined differently from organisation to organisation, it is obvious that indentifying hazards, carrying out safety studies such as HAZOP or Job Hazard Analysis and investigating root causes of incidents and near-misses and  (JHA) are important steps in avoiding accidents, incidents and near-misses. All accidents, incidents and near-misses need to be reported and recorded for further investigation. Upper-management should acknowledge and educate workers on incidents and near-misses so that they will not go unnoticed and eventually lead to actual accidents.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Workplace Health and Safety Blog Introduction

Greetings to all employees of Navitas Professional Services,

As you all know health and safety concern is a big deal in every industry now and that includes us. So here we are, taking the proactive approach to ensure that Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) is a real thing in our organisation.

The blog will have daily posts about news or information on WHS, changes to WHS policies within our organisation or anything that related to WHS. We encourage all of our employees to participate in this blog by any method that you are comfortable with either by posting (just shoot us an email including the post you want to make) or commenting. 

So, what is Workplace Health and Safety? If you are working with us then we expect you to know the answer.

"Workplace Health and Safety (WHS), often referred to as Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) involves the assessment and mitigation of risks that may impact the health, safety or welfare of those in your workplace. This may include the health and safety of your customers, employees, visitors, contractors, volunteers and suppliers." - Australian Government for Business 


This means as part of our responsibilities, we need to ensure that everyone involved in our workplace stay safe without any harm to their physical or psychological health. We, however, need you to take part in ensuring your own as well as everyone's safety and participating in this blog is one of the ways. What you can do include but not limited to:
  • work safely to ensure your own health and safety
  • make sure your work or actions do not cause any harm or injury to others
  • follow our safety instructions for each and every task
  • take care of your provided PPE as instructed, report any unsual signs of the equipment
  • report any hazards or injuries to your managers or supervisors
  • participate in this blog by posting or commenting strictly related to WHS, feel free to mention or discuss on the posted matters.
We hope this blog can serve as a reminder and a place for you to find resources about things related to WHS. Have fun and stay safe!



Incident versus Accident

There are 2 most common definitions of incident and accident: 1) accident as a type of incident and 2) accident and incident as two d...