Foundation of a Major Injury

Many still offer as tmth Heinrich s Foundation of a Major Injury — the 1 29 300 premise, which stated that ... in a unit group of 330 similar accidents occurring to the same person, 300 will result in no injury, 29 will produce minor injuries, and 1 will cause a serious injury. Think about that — 330 similar accidents occurring to the same person. Would that include a fall off a 50-story building ... 

In the same way in all four editions, Heinrich presented his concepts on The Foundation of a Major Injury. He originally stated that in a unit group of 330 accidents, 300 result in no injury, 29 result in minor injury, and 1 results in a major or lost time case (Citation 27). 

In the paragraph above, 330 accidents are required to produce 1 major injury. Note the term required. In later editions it is recognized that a major injury can result from the first accident. For example, in the fourth edition, in the text beneath a chart showing The Foundation of a Major Injury, Heinrich says ... 

The Foundation of a Major Injury, the 300 29 1 ratios (Heinrich s triangle), is the least tenable of his premises. 

While the near miss incidents that form the base of the accident ratio are truly the foundation of a major injury, numerous high risk acts and conditions lie below on the next level (Model 1.2). Research has indicated that this lower level of unsafe situations could equate to as many as a thousand high risk situations for every serious injury experienced. While the actual numbers are debatable, the fact remains that there must be numerous high risk acts and conditions for the plenty of near miss incidents experienced. 

Becanse near miss incidents are the foundation of a major injury, their identification and elimination will bring about a reduction in the nnmber of injury accidents. 

The safety pioneers that I have quoted in this book need to be thanked for their diligent research into one of safety s hidden secrets and for exposing what could be a key to injury reduction at the workplace—near miss recognition, reporting, and rectification. They were the propounders of the important theory that near misses are the foundation of a major injury, and, in modem terms, precursors to major accidental events. 

Near miss incidents are truly the foundation of major injuries, the building blooks of accidents, and warning signs that loss is imminent. They can also form the impetus for proaotive, preventative actions. This book explores how to implement a near miss inoident identification, recognition, investigation, and rectification program. 

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