The use of a model to record and store data on industrial accidents resulting in injury

Shannon, H.S. and Manning, D.P., 1980. The use of a model to record and store data on industrial accidents resulting in injury. Journal of Occupational Accidents, 3: 57–65.A brief description of a conceptual model of industrial accidents is given. Data on all 2428 reported accidents occurring in the transmission plant of a motor company for one year were recorded on specially designed forms and “plotted” onto the model. A random sample of 100 accidents was chosen. Three safety professionals assessed the “usefulness” (with reference to five possible uses) of the information, in both the model and the original verbal description, for most of the accidents in the sample. A scale of 0 to 5 was used for the assessment. It was found that the model commonly received the same grade as the verbal descriptions and only exceptionally was as much as two grades worse, implying that relatively little information was lost in plotting. It is suggested that accident data can be recorded and stored using the model.