ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Many injuries and fatalities are the result of accidental falls and, more broadly, the result of movement disturbances. The accident process ends with an injury mechanism, which embodies the hazard concept involved in risk assessment and prevention strategies. If hazard taxonomy exists, it would seem that no category describes it precisely enough to represent the injury mechanism resulting from movement disturbance or loss of balance in particular. This chapter focuses on the injury mechanism and discusses the notion of “circumstantial hazard,” which causes an injury, when combined with the energy of the victim’s disturbed movement. The part played by the kinetic energy of the victim’s movement in causing injury would imply that walking or moving is a hazard. Describing the injury mechanism in any accident triggered by movement disturbance enables us to highlight the difficulties or impossibilities of assessing the related risk and of setting up the most effective protective barriers against the injury. Widening the scope of analysis from falls to any accident triggered by movement disturbance is meaningful, and it increases the visibility of many accidents that are not specifically considered.
