ABSTRACT
The severity of an injury is largely dependent on Luck Factor 3 and many safety pioneers and previous safety management research confirm this fact. The degree of injury could range from a minor abrasion requiring only a plaster to a fatal injury. Depending on the exposure, impact and amount of energy transferred, the area of body involved, and the duration of the energy exchanged, Luck Factor 3 determines how badly the person or persons are about to be injured.
A low injury rate does not necessarily mean good safety performance. An injury rate is not safety performance but rather safety failure. Safety audits of the health and safety management system (SMS), which measure and compare control mechanisms introduced to prevent accidental losses, should rather be used as a gauge of safety performance or safety control.
As a result of three luck factors, the severity of an injury is therefore a poor gauge of either success or failure in safety performance.
