ABSTRACT
Large scale losses such as those arising from major fires or explosions, or involving loss of life, are very visible and some have been costed on an individual basis. For example, the Piper Alpha explosion involved the loss of 167 lives and is estimated to have cost over £2 billion, including £746 million in direct insurance payouts. BP estimate that the refinery fire at Grangemouth in 1987, in which one person died, cost £50 million in property damage and a further £50 million due to business interruption. Compensation given to people injured at work often involves large sums of money: for example a car worker who suffered repetitive strain injury was recently awarded around £60,000. Less well understood, however, is the nature and extent of loss from accidents of a more routine nature: those accidents which injure but do not kill people, which damage plant and interrupt processes. The costs of these sorts of accident can often be hidden in sick pay, increased insurance premiums or maintenance budgets. Few firms have the mechanisms to identify them separately and fewer still actually identify and examine the costs of accidents systematically.
