ABSTRACT
It is understood throughout the safety profession that the most important role a safety professional plays is the prevention of accidents and injuries. When an accident or injury occurs, it is the responsibility of the safety professional to ensure that a thorough investigation is conducted. Accident investigations are a huge responsibility for any safety professional and one that should not be taken lightly. There are several more modern and scientific theories concerning accident causation, each of which has some explanatory and predictive value. This chapter discusses some of the theories of accident causation: domino theory, human factors theory, accident/incident theory, epidemiological theory, systems theory, energy release theory, behavior theory. According to the Domino Theory, a personal injury occurs only as a result of an accident. An accident occurs only as a result of a personal or mechanical hazard. Accident/incident theory is basically an extension of the Human Factors accident causation model.
