Frank E. Bird, Jr

The Bird accident sequence revolutionized Heinrich s thinking in that Bird suggested the first domino, or initiating event, in the accidental loss causation sequence, was poor management control. This poor control, according to Bird, then triggered basic causes in the form of personal and job factors. These basic causes led to the unsafe acts or unsafe conditions. These immediate causes, as the acts and conditions are known, led to the contact with the source of energy and the resultant loss. Bird also included all aspects of accidental loss and not only personal injury. 

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What have others written about direct and indirect incident costs A brief review will be given of the RoUin H. Simonds method the Frank E. Bird, Jr. studies an analysis made by Stanford University s Department of Civil Engineering and OSHA s Safety Pays Program. 

In the 1974 book titled Management Guide to Loss Control, Frank E. Bird, Jr. presented what he called the iceberg theory of incident costs. In an exhibit having the appearance of an iceberg and captioned The Real Costs Of Accidents Can Be Measured and Controlled, Bird gave these ratios ... 

Frank E. Bird, Jr., and George L. Germain emphasized the importance of understanding the working interface for effective safety management in Practical Loss Control Leadership, first pubhshed in 1985. A second edition, from which the following text and exhibit are taken, was issued in 1996. 

In Management Guide to Loss Control, by Frank E. Bird, Jr., a chapter on Proper Job Analysis and Procedures extends the purposes of a task analysis to include aspects other than safety. Bird said ... 

Frank E. Bird Jr. George L. Germain. 1969. Practical Loss Control Leadership, Inti Loss Control Inst. 

In 1969, a study of industrial accidents was undertaken by Frank E. Bird, Jr., who was then the Director of Engineering Services for the Insurance Company of North America. He was interested in the accident ratio of 1 major injury to 29 minor injuries to 300 no-injury accidents first discussed in the 1931 book Industrial Accident Prevention by H. W. Heinrich. Since Mr. Heinrich estimated this relationship and stated further that the ratio related to the occurrence of a unit group of 330 accidents of the same kind and involving the same person, Mr. Bird wanted to determine what the actual reporting relationship of accidents was by the entire average population of workers [6]. 

Germain, George L., Beyond Behaviorism to Holistic Motivation, in Safety and The Bottom Line, Frank E. Bird, Jr. and Ray J. Davies, 1996, p. 215. 

In his Management Guide to Loss Control (1974), Frank E. Bird, Jr., proposed that, in reports to management, data should be included to show the additional sales required to pay for accident costs. As will be noted in the following discussion, the premise that additional sales are necessary to cover accident costs cannot be supported. 

As the late safety entrepreneur Frank E. Bird, Jr. explained to me ... 

It is interesting that the 300 30 ratio of near hits to injuries is referred to as a "law," when, in fact, it was only an estimate. It was not until more than 30 years later that this "law" was actually tested empirically. As Director of Engineering Services for the Insurance Company of America, Frank E. Bird, Jr., analyzed 1,753,498 "accidents" reported by 297 companies. These companies employed a total of 1,750,000 employees who worked more than ree billion hours during the exposure period analyzed. 

Bird, Frank E., Jr. Management Guide to Loss Control. Loganville, GA Institute Press, 1975. 

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