ABSTRACT
Heinrich et al. compiled ten axioms of industrial safety, the most pertinent one to this chapter being axiom number 4, which states “the severity of an injury is largely fortuitous – the occurrence of the accident that results in injury is largely preventable” (p. 21).
This fourth axiom is perhaps the most significant statement in the safety management profession. What Heinrich wrote is that the degree of injury depends on luck, but that the accident can be prevented. What he further indicates by this axiom is that while the accident can be prevented, the severity of the resultant injury is something over which we have little or no control.
The type of injury that results from an accident is largely dependent on factors that can neither be predicted nor controlled, and which numerous safety authors refer to as fortune or chance.
