Accident costs rates

Safety goals — Set safety goals for managers and supervisors (e.g. accident rates, accident costs, and loss ratios). 

Increasing the number of genuine claims paid under WC slightly increases workplace injuries. Specifically, the elasticity of the injury rate with respect to v /2 is about 0.004. Our simulations reveal that the shift in accident costs away from workers toward firms as a higher proportion of genuine WC claims are paid is relatively small, which accounts for the small increase in worker injuries. 

Organizations can use cost information in other ways to help achieve safety. For example, accident claim rates provide a source of costs for some products. So do returns and failures of products. The data may help when selecting supphers of parts, assemblies and components. Accident records, insurance rates, and claim records can help when selecting contractors. Cost of product failures, complaints, accidents, compliance with standards and other claims can help when setting performance incentives for suppliers and contractors. 

A preventive maintenance program can be developed for any industrial function that has a maintenance component. The same principles used in the truck operator example in this chapter can be used for other mobile equipment, machinery, or process maintenance (see Figure A.3). It matters little the type of maintenance. It is more important that the workers, operators, supervisors, and management realize that the care taken in prevention will pay dividends in cost savings, accident costs, less equipment damage, and better overall working conditions and employee attitudes. Care of your physical assets (physical plant, vehicles, machinery, etc.) is critical to the bottom line. The bonus is that you will reduce one of the factors that can contribute to your occupational injury rate. 

Using current accident costs. Road Safety Audit costs identified in this chapter, and assuming the safety benefits identified by Surrey County Council, a first-year rate of return of around 600% can be estimated for this type of work. 

Accident information can be used to prevent future accidents of a similar nature. Accident reports should be prepared for management on a monthly basis. Company incident rates, frequent accident locations, accident cost per mile, and hours of continual driving per accident should be included in this report. ... 

Robertson proceeds to offer a modified version of Peltzman s prediction equation in which the accident cost variable is dropped, the youth variable is changed from share of the population which is young to the share of youthful drivers in fatal accidents , the fatality rate for occupants is multiplied by the proportion of fatal accidents which involved passenger cars and the nonoccupant rate was backed out from the adjusted total fatality rate. Using the modified equation Robertson finds that actual fatality rates during the regulatory period from 1966 to 1972 are well below projected rates and that the measured contribution of vehicle safety standards is quite compatible with earlier technological analysis. However, as Peltzman points out that each of the "corrections" made by Robertson is a matter of choice and that each is... 

Optimism about economic growth in the period 1960—1975 led to a large number of reactor orders. Many of these were canceled even after partial completion in the period after the 1974 oil crisis, as the result of a reduction in energy demand. Inflation, high interest rates, long constmction periods, and regulatory delays resulted in severe cost overmns. Moreover, the reactor accidents of TMI and, later, Chernobyl produced an atmosphere of pubHc concern. 

Concern Specific effects, therefore increased costs, accident rate reduced productivity Decreased well-being Non-specific respiratory troubles Irritation of eyes, nose and throat Damage to property and vegetation Injury to animals Decrease in amenity Long-term ecological effects... 

End-of-pipe measures continue to be vitally important. The largest PSM and ESH management costs are accident and incident related. If you reduce the costs of managing PSM and ESH, yet accident and incident rates rise beyond any normal statistical variation, the new system is costing the company more. Near misses are a leading indicator for accidents and incidents and should not be neglected. 

Fatal accident rate Lost-time injury rate Capital cost of accidents Number of plant/community evacuations Cost of business interruption Cost of workers compensation claims Number of hazardous material spills (in excess of a threshold) Tonnage of hazardous material spilled Tonnage of air, water, liquid and solid effluent Tonnage of polluting materials released into the environment Employee exposure monitoring Number of work related sickness claims Number of regulatory citations and fines Ecological impact of operations (loss or restoration of biodiversity, species, habitats)... 

Equivalent Social Cost index Fatal accident rate (discussed in Section 18.5) ... 

When the cause of the incident has been established and the costs of rectification finalized, these will be compared with the insurance cover provided by the policy and the extent of the insurer s liability, if any, determined. The policy will normally be one of indemnity, i.e. returning the insured to the same position after an accident as he was before. This may be achieved by repairing or replacing what is damaged or by paying the amount of the damage. It may be necessary to carry out modifications to prevent a recurrence of the accident or desirable to up-rate the specification for better performance or the life of the machine may have been extended by the repairs carried out. In this case a degree of betterment is involved which will be reflected in the settlement by a contribution by the insured to the cost of repairs. 

Insurance costs also depend on the safety precautions taken. When a homeowner buys fire insurance the cost depends on the type of construction and the nearness and effectiveness of fire protection equipment, as well as the value of house and its furnishings. To determine the effect of these factors a statistical analysis is made of the factors contributing to fire losses. Insurance companies are noted for not losing money, and so rates also depend on the past record of those insured. In determining automobile insurance rates the age and the number of previous accidents and traffic... 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the injury frequency rate for all manufacturing companies rose from 11.8 in 1960 to 15.3 in 1970. The National Safety Council estimates that there are around 15,000 job-related deaths each year and another 2,300,000 workers suffer disabling injuries. The total cost associated with these accidents is nearly 9,500,000,000/yr. 14 These figures are conservative,... 

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