Abstract
THE HUMAN FACTOR IN ACCIDENTS.—The importance to industry of a study of accidents, major and minor, cannot be exaggerated, but when definite causative relations are sought the difficulties and complexities seem to render scientific treatment almost impossible. The immediate relation is between machinery and an accident, and quite rightly have efforts been made to diminish trie risk due to machinery. More detailed study reveals, however, a number of determinants which point to less obvious factors. Report No. 34 of the Industrial Fatigue Research Board (H.M.S.O., price 5s.) is a contribution by Miss Newbold to the study of the human factor in the causation of accidents. It is a statistical analysis of minor accidents reported from many firms and covering a considerable period of time. It is found (1) that in nearly all the groups the average number of accidents is much influenced by a comparatively small number of workers, and that the distributions among the workers are far from chance; (2) that there are many indications that some part is due to personal tendency; (3) that the people who have the most accidents are, on the whole, those who pay most visits to the ambulance room for minor sicknesses. The study is very important not only for what it brings forward in the way of positive evidence, but as an example of scientific method applied to a very difficult problem where vague speculation and prejudice frequently masquerade as fact. The writer suggests that further detailed investigation should be undertaken along the lines of individual study and experimental psychology.
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Research Items. Nature 117, 701–703 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/117701a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/117701a0