Source: 1footage (Envato Elements)
Most people think that a safety professional’s job is to prevent workplace accidents. But if you listen to safety professionals talk, they almost never mention accidents. Instead, they’ll make a lot of reference to “incidents.”
That’s not just a matter of personal preference. It’s not an attempt to sound more professional, either.
Although you might use them interchangeably in your day to day life, there are actually a few very important differences between accidents and incidents. And for safety professionals, those distinctions genuinely matter.
Difference in Scope
Incidents and accidents are both unplanned events that can result in property damage, harm to the natural environment, injuries, or fatalities.
But there’s a difference in scope between the two of them. Incidents is the broader category, while accidents are really a subset of incidents.
Or to put it another way: every accident is an incident, but not all incidents are accidents.
To see why, consider something like workplace violence. It can result in psychological or physical harm, but it’s not really an accidental event. Whoever perpetrated the violent act did so deliberately, intentionally, or willfully. Which means it’s a workplace incident, and quite possibly a very serious one, but not an accident.
Conversely, suppose a metallic container that’s been left outdoors gradually rusts and erodes, releasing a harmful chemical into the soil. This falls under the category of an incident as well, but calling it an accident feels a bit off. The leak didn’t happen because someone dropped the container while moving, bumped into a shelf and knocked it over, or tipped it carelessly over onto its side. It’s just an event that happened.
By referring to incidents, safety professionals make sure that all the events they’re concerned with are part of the discussion, not just the smaller subset that qualifies as accidents.
Difference in Severity
When someone mentions a workplace accident, it sounds like something severe happened. You might imagine someone falling and permanently injuring their back, losing a finger when a power tool slips, or being crushed under heavy equipment.
And while safety professionals are concerned with all of these, their job covers so much more. Occupational Health
and Safety is also focused on identifying, analyzing, and preventing events that might not seem like capital-A Accidents but are definitely still a cause for concern.
There are the near misses – events where no one got hurt, but someone could have if they hadn’t been so lucky.
There are conditions that violate safety regulations but haven’t actually resulted in a bad outcome yet. Like heavy equipment maintenance that is carried out without locking and tagging the machinery first.
There are also minor injuries that might require simple first aid before sending the employee back to work.
Referring to incidents instead of accidents makes it clear that these less severe events are also included. It also sends the message that they are still a cause for concern, even if no one was seriously injured.
Difference in Responsibility
While scope and severity matter, the most important reason for the distinction has to do with accountability.
The word “accident” implies that no one is responsible for the event – and that nothing could’ve been done to prevent it.
When an accident happens, it’s no one’s fault. It’s just a fluke.
But it’s a safety professional’s job and an employer’s responsibility to put in place (metaphorical and sometimes literal) guardrails to prevent those flukes from happening – or to reduce harm when they do.
While it’s true that accidents happen, there are important steps employers can take to significantly reduce the likelihood that they do. Training programs, carefully selected PPE, better jobsite layouts, good ventilation, and other safety measures can’t eliminate every single risk from the workplace, but they can come close.
Focusing on incidents instead of accidents makes it clear that adverse events may be unplanned but they are still preventable.
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