What Does
Safety Pyramid Mean?
The safety pyramid is a pictorial depiction of a concept developed by H.W. Heinrich (known as Heinrich's Law) that describes the relationship between near misses and more serious incidents and accidents.
It is also known as the safety triangle or the Heinrich pyramid.
Safeopedia Explains Safety Pyramid
The safety pyramid represents the claim that, for every workplace accident that causes a major injury, there are 29 that cause minor injuries and 300 accidents (or near misses) that cause no injuries.
Heinrich's Law relies on the assumption that the number of reported accidents is inversely proportional to their severity. On this assumption, then, it is fair to say that minimizing the number of minor incidents will likely lead to a reduction in major accidents.
Safety experts believe that the real contribution of Heinrich’s study isn’t the ratio depicted by the pyramid but its pioneering use of data to find common causes as a function of investigating injuries.