INDUSTRY DIFFERENCES IN ACCIDENT CAUSATION

Occupational fatalities are thought to have similar origins across dif ferent types of work. In this study all occupational fatalities occurr ing in Australia over a three year period were coded and classified us ing a method designed to describe the comprehensive causes of accident s. The aim of the study was to determine whether there are general cau sation patterns for fatalities at work across all industry. One thousa nd and twenty occupational fatalities were coded for the analysis. Cor respondence analysis and cluster analysis were used to describe the pa tterns and relationships between occupational groups and nature of the accident precursor sequence. The results of the final cluster analysi s showed that fatalities occurred in a similar manner for most occupat ional groups. The major exceptions were timbergetters and electrical t rades workers. Two main factors seemed to be important, however, in di stinguishing the nature of accident precursors of the occupational gro ups - the gross nature of the accident sequence with respect to the in volvement of behavioural or environmental factors and the presence or absence of unsafe work practices as contributors to the sequences. The re was some interaction between these two factors. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd