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Accident Prevention

Accident prevention is a proactive measure taken by the department to eliminate hazards, where possible, utilize engineering and administrative controls to reduce the risk, and/or require the use of personal protective equipment in order to minimize the extent of injury. Here are some actions to take:
  • Get employees involved in accident prevention. Be proactive by encouraging employees to correct hazardous conditions that they observe, or promptly report the situation to a supervisor for coordination of response.
  • Conduct regular health and safety meetings with employees on related topics. Education, instruction, training, and enforcement of procedures minimize the human factors that contribute to incidences. Safety meetings give the department an opportunity to address areas needing improvement, keep safety at the forefront of daily activities, and provide the employees an opportunity to report or discuss situations that may need to be addressed.
  • Ensure that supervisors lead by example. It is difficult to get employees to act in a safe manner when they observe supervisors ignoring the rules or asking employees to take shortcuts.
  • Conduct periodic self-inspections of the work area. Supervisors or designated departmental safety representatives should routinely inspect the work area and employee activities to identify potentially unsafe conditions which need to be corrected. A self-inspection checklist is available for your convenience.  It may also be tailored to meet a department’s specific industry or focus.
  • Conduct a Hazard Assessment of the work area to identify hazards inherent to the work area or job tasks and establish appropriate controls for elimination or reduction. Environmental Health & Safety offers additional training for conducting a hazard assessment, hazard monitoring, consultation, and job task review.
  • Have an Emergency Action Plan for your department and inform employees of its contents.  If a plan has not already been developed, use the template provided.
  • Establish required training for personnel.