Accident Compensation Claims

General Accident Prevention Articles

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Accidents are Predictable and Preventable

Martin Lesperance

Most injuries are preventable. People tend to blame their injuries on "accidents." However, when you examine the causes of most accidents, you’ll find that the accidents are actually the result of predictable and preventable occurrences. Suppose you know you’re driving with bald tires. If one of them blows out, causing you to lose control of the car and crash, this is not an accident. It’s a predictable and preventable event.

To prevent injuries, people must accept responsibility for their actions and must take obvious steps to eliminate safety hazards.

For example, let’s take "near misses" seriously. Near misses are something we tend to ignore. You might come close to cutting a finger off with a power saw and not think anything of it because you weren’t actually injured. However, sometimes, it’s just a fraction of an inch or a split second that separates the near miss from a serious injury. The next time you might not be so lucky. Find out what caused the near miss and take proper action to prevent it from happening again.

Copyright 1997 Safety Health Publishing Inc.
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"Martin Lesperance is a firefighter/paramedic and best selling author who offers humourous talks dealing with injury prevention. He can be reached at (403) 225-2011 or visit his website at www.safete.com." 

Copyright 2003