Description
Major Accidents are accidents that lead to multiple fatalities, significant environmental impact and/or severe material losses. Companies have been put out of business due to the financial and reputation impact of Major Accidents. Many communities have seen their local environment devastated by pollution from Major Accidents. Family and friends carry the memory of loved ones lost in Major Accidents. Considering the consequences of Major Accidents, it would seem sensible that all of us should have a focus on the prevention of Major Accidents and a desire to understand why Major Accidents occur.
However, incidents that could escalate into Major Accidents still happen and every so often, the holes in the barriers align. The continuous vigilance we need for prevention of Major Accidents fails. We hope that our Reflektions will help you keep the vigil and give you some guidance on keeping a continual focus on Major Accident prevention.
How to use the Reflektions
Our intention with the books is learning and we believe the incidents and reflections over the incidents can be useful in the learning process. The Reflektions have been used in safety meetings to create discussions on ongoing issues, as a safety moment, and in risk assessments, Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOPs) and Hazard Identification studies (HAZIDs) as examples of what can go wrong. We have used the Reflektions to illustrate issues that we believe management in companies need to focus on. We believe you should consider two key factors in getting the best out of the Reflektions. Firstly, the Reflektions need to be relevant, or be made to be relevant, to your operation/activity and your circumstances. Without relevance the Reflektions will only be of academic interest and are unlikely to contribute to learning and positive change. Secondly, the Reflektions should be used to make an emotional connection. Appealing to peoples’ emotions and making them feel strongly about the subject matter is important to create dialog. The dialog is important to promote learning and a basis for measures that lead to improvements. The Reflektions can be used to create a narrative that can engage people and encourage them to contribute and share their own thoughts and experience. After all, everyone likes a good story.