Total recordable injury rate

Figure 26.1. After implementing a behavioral safety process, this pipeline company achieved significant reductions in its total recordable injury rates (TRIRs) and experienced zero injuries for three consecutive years.

Promote accountability. Both the quantity and quality of participation in an incident analysis process depend on the numbers you use to evaluate success or failure. The success of any safety effort is ultimately determined by the bottom line outcome—the total recordable injury rate (TRIR), but this index provides no instructive guidance nor motivation to continue a particular safety process. 

People will obviously go to great lengths to shake blame for unintentional property damage or injury. This reduces negative stress or distress. No one wants to feel responsible for a workplace injury, especially if the company puts heavy emphasis on reducing "the numbers," such as the plant s total recordable injury rate. 

An ExxonMobil Chemical facility in Texas has demonstrated exemplary success with a coaching process based on the principles and procedures described in this chapter. By the end of two years, they had almost 100 percent participation and have reaped extraordinary benefits. From an outcome perspective, they started with a baseline of 13 OSHA recordable injuries in 1992 (TRIR = 4.11), and progressed to 5 OSHA recordables in 1993 (TRIR = 1.70). They sustained only one OSHA recordable in 1994 (TRIR = 0.30) and reached their target of zero OSHA recordables in 1997 and 1999. At the time of this writing (mid-2000), they are still injury free for the year. Figure 12.18 depicts the total recordable injury rate (TRIR) for this plant from 1991 to mid-2000. They had received behavior-based coaching training in the latter half of 1992, implemented their observations and feedback process plantwide in 1993, and by 1994 everyone was on board as a behavior-focused coach. They have continued this process ever since and have had numerous occasions to celebrate their phenomenal safety success. 

Of course, the golf scenario I have asked you to imagine is far-fetched, but is this not the way it is for safety at many industrial sites The primary evaluation tool used to rank companies and determine performance appraisals and bonuses is an outcome number (such as total recordable injury rate) which is quite remote from the daily plant processes people have control over. Without a scoring system that focuses on controllable processes (as discussed earlier in this Handbook), safety will be viewed as beyond personal control. An injury is just bad luck," analogous to hitting a golf ball in a sandtrap while blindfolded. 

Hansen (1994) used these words in his Professional Safety article on managing occupational safety (page 41). You have probably heard words to this effect. Indeed, they are key to any continuous improvement effort, but there is a problem with how workplace safety is traditionally measured. As I indicated earlier in Chapter 3, too much weight is given to outcome numbers that people cannot control directly. People must be held accountable for results they can control. Yet, corporations, divisions, plants, and departments are often ranked according to abstract outcome numbers like the total recordable injury rate. These rankings often determine bonus rewards or penalties. 

The last two principles relate to the critical issue of program evaluation (Chapter 18). In safety, the total recordable injury rate (TRIR) is the most popular evaluation number used to rank companies for safety rewards. It is calculated by multiplying the number of workplace injuries by 200,000 and dividing the answer by the total person-hours worked in that time period (U.S. Department of Labor, 1994). What an obvious example of an abstract number with little meaning. The most direct measure of ongoing safety performance comes from behavioral observations and, in Chapters 8,12, and 18,1 recommended ways to obtain meaningful feedback numbers from such process evaluation. 

Total recordable injury rate (TRI-rate) Total number of recordable injuries per 10 employee-hours. The recordable injuries include fatalities, lost-time injuries, medical treatment injuries other than first aid, and injuries resulting in loss of consciousness, transfer to another job or restricted work (compare Table 6.3). 

The TRI-rate (total recordable injury rate) has been developed for two purposes. One purpose is to increase the statistical basis by including other types of injuries than those resulting in lost time. A second purpose is to make the indicator more robust against the type of manipulation where the injured employee is transferred to another job rather than being sent home for sick leave. The TRI-rate shares the problem with the LTI-rate that it is insensitive to the degree of harm. 

Figure 17.6 Total recordable injury rates and their components for five plants producing car components.

During the same period the total recordable case rate fell from 1.5 injuries per 200 000 to 1.2 injuries per 200 000. 

In 2000, our total recordable incidence rate of 1.02 per 200,000 employee hours worked bettered our 1999 rate and was well ahead of the industry average for large companies of 2.26 recordable injuries per 200,000 employee hours worked. For the 2001 fiscal year, results continued to improve, with recordable accidents dropping to a rate of 0.82 per... 

Total number of injuries and illnesses Number of hours worked by all employees 200,000 hours = Total recordable case rate... 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Total Recordable Rate (sometimes referred to as Total Recordable Incident Rate [TRIR]) using the number of OSHA recordable injury and illness cases. The TRC is the total of all recordable injury and illness cases. This includes cases that involve days away from work, job transfer or restriction, and other recordable cases from the OSHA s Form 300 multiplied by 200,000 and then divided by the number of employee hours worked. 

This demonstration has profoxmd lessons for achieving a Total Safety Culture. As I have discussed earlier, the typical evaluation procedure used by both the government and private sector to judge the safety record of companies is based on organizational or system performance—"fhe fofal recordable injury rate" or number of "OSHA recordables"— xmconfrollable by mosf individual workers. 

Calculations of the total recordable injury frequency rates for the new and the reference platforms showed a small decrease for the new platform. It was concluded that the acceptance criterion was met. The analysis, however, revealed a number of activities where an increase in the injury frequency of more than 20 per cent was expected. The ALARP principle called for actions to reduce the risk of accidents in these activities in particular. They included ... 

The Total Recordable and Days Away/Restricted case rates continued to decline, indicating that fewer American employees encountered safety or health hazards resulting in serious injuries or illnesses. The rates for calendar year 2007, reported on October 23, 2008, were lower than the previous year, and, thus, were the lowest rates that BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) has ever reported. 

You can compute an occupational injury and illness incidence rate for all recordable cases or for cases that involved days away from work for your firm quickly and easily. The formula requires that you follow instructions in paragraph (a) below for the total recordable cases or those in paragraph (b) for cases that involved days away from work, and for both rates the instructions in paragraph (c). 

Example 8-1 Assume the XYZ Machine Company had 192 employees who worked a total of 385,728 hours during a calendar year. The company experienced 10 recordable injuries and illnesses among employees. The incident rate would be ... 

The Department of Energy and its contractor injury and illness indicators include occupational injury and illness rates per 200,000 workhours for total recordable cases, lost workday cases, lost workdays, and occupational illnesses. In addition, the DOE has developed two measures used to quantify occupational injuries and illnesses. These measures are the ratio of Lost Workdays to Lost Workday Cases and the DOE Safety Cost Index (Training Resources and Data Exchange [TRADE] 1995,1-60-61). 

Calculation of the severity rate is similar to the incident rate except that the total number of lost-time workdays or restricted workdays is used in place of the number of OSHA recordable injuries/illnesses. The severity rate for a company can be calculated in the following manner ... 

Incident rates, both frequency (total recordable rate, that includes all OSHA recordable injuries and illnesses), and severity (the number of restricted lost days due to workplace injuries and illnesses) are considered end of the pipe (downstream) measurements. These measurements are similar to trying to inspect quality into the finished products after the fact, rather than control the production process. 

Once the observations have been recorded, the data will be added to arrive at a total number of behaviors for each category. In this example, there were a total of six safe behaviors and two at-risk behaviors observed. Of the eight total behaviors that occurred, it was found that six were considered to be safe, so this task measured as 75% safe. Rather than focusing on failures, such as are measured by injury rates, this metric provides a proactive positive measurement of safety performance. Observations can be accumulated in a database or spreadsheet and measured over time with the goal of increasing the level of safe performance of jobs that occur. 

Chart 1. Total recordable nonfat W upational injury and illness incid ice rates by case type, private industry, 2003-2009... 

Frequency rate = number of accidents x 200,000 divided by the total employee hours worked. North Americans use 200,000 hours as a base, the Europeans tend to use 100,000 hours, and still others use 1,000,000 hours in their rate calculations. The reason 200,000 hours is used in North America is because it roughly equals the number of hours worked by 100 employees during a normal work year. Using 200,000 as a base makes it easy to estimate the site s frequency rate by simply knowing the number of employees at work. For example, if your site has 200 employees and you had six recordable injuries, you have a frequency rate of about 3 if you had 400 employees with six recordable injuries, you have an accident rate of about 1.5. Commonly used frequency and severity rates are ... 

Once you know your establishment s NAICS code, go to httpy/www.bls.gov/iLfioshsmn.htm. Find the Summary Table called Table 1 - Incidence rates - detailed industry level. Scroll through the BLS table and find the corresponding NAICS code in the left-hand colmnn. (NAICS data are presented in numeric order in the BLS Table). To compare your injury and dlness rates, use the number listed in the Total recordable cases column for your NAICS as the industry average incidence rate. Use the number listed in the total from the Cases with days away from work, job transfer, or restriction column as the industry average DART rate. Note At press time, the most current data available were for calendar year 2011 injuries and illnesses 2012 should be available soon. 

Liles et al. (1984) performed a field study to determine the relationship between JSI and the incidence and severity of LBDs. A total of 453 subjects was included in the study. The results of the field study indicated that both incidence and severity of recordable back injuries rose rapidly at values of JSI greater than 1.5. The denominator for the incidence and severity rates is 100 full-time employees, that is, 200,000 exposure hours. JSI can be reduced to a desirable level by increasing worker capacity (e.g., selecting a worker with higher capacity) or altering task and job parameters to reduce JSI to an acceptable level. 

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