University Health and Safety Report: Near Miss, Case Study Analysis

This report delves into the critical aspects of workplace health and safety, examining a near-miss incident and the Westray coal mine disaster. The report begins with a personal reflection on a near-miss incident, detailing the event and potential preventative measures. It then analyzes the Westray coal mine case, highlighting the causes of the disaster, including poor management, lack of training, and inadequate safety equipment. The report identifies stakeholders, including management and workers, and outlines their respective responsibilities in maintaining a safe work environment. It emphasizes the importance of training, safety protocols, and hazard record-keeping. The report references several academic sources to support its findings, underscoring the significance of occupational health and safety professionals in ensuring worker well-being and preventing future incidents. The report concludes by reinforcing the need for proactive safety measures to avoid predictable paths to disaster.

Running head: WORK PLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
Work Place Health and Safety
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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TASK 1
Near Miss in the Work Place
The concept of near miss in the work places is very important in terms of the safety of the
workers present in that work place. According to the study of Zhou et al. (2017), it is stated
that the term near miss refers to the unplanned events within a specific work places and it is
also important to mention that such incidents are not associated with any type of serious
injuries and adverse incidents. Furthermore, it is important to mention that such near miss
incidents are capable of causing serious harms to the body of the workers.
Recently I have heard about a near miss incident in the organization in which I am working
for last 3 years. In this context, it is important to mention that my company is working in the
field of construction work and thus it is quite obvious that there are various chances of getting
affected by the accidents in the work place. In this incident, it was reported by the other
workers that in a fine afternoon all the workers were busy in having their lunch in a specific
area. Suddenly, the workers reported a loud sound and it was found that the crane used to lift
all the heavy materials were broken. This incident caused a huge loss to the construction site
as it one of the major equipment is damaged. However, in this case, there is high chance of
facing serious injuries among the workers. As the incident has all the potential to cause
serious hazard to the workers. As per my understanding, such kind of near miss incident can
be prevented by using regular inspection of the work place.

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TASK 4
1. From the above case study, it can be stated that in case of Westray coal mine in
Plymouth, Nova Scotia, an adverse incidents took place in a coal mine and in this
accident almost 26 miners died. Along with this, approximately 170 mine workers
were rescued from the site of accidents. After this incident, the charge of investigation
was given to the Justice Peter Richard and he was appointed to find out the exact
reason of this adverse incident in the work place. Justice Peter Richard submitted a
report named The Westray Story: a Predictable Path to Disaster and from this report,
it was found that this incident can easily be prevented by taking proper initiatives
related to the safety measures. In this report, justice reported that poor management
style of the company was mainly associated with the adverse incidents as it focused
more on the production and thereby neglects the safety of the workers in the work
place. Moreover, the report also suggested that there was lack of proper training, poor
inspection of the work places, and poor use of safety equipment in the work place
(Boyle, 2017).
2. The case report of the justice Richard claimed that the incident can be preventable by
taking proper measures. Therefore, I clearly agree with that claim that it was a
predictable path to the disaster happen to this incident. From the case study, it was
observed that no appropriate measures were taken by the management. According to
the study of Reese (2015), it is stated that proper training is very crucial for the
workers before initiating the work. Not only this, but the study also identified that
proper safety equipment is mandatory for working in a hazardous condition. From the
case report, it was reported that proper training was not provided to the workers as
well.

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3. In this case study, the management of the mining company and the workers are the
primary stakeholders. In this regard, it can be stated that the duty of the management
is to provide proper training to the workers. Moreover, they must follow all the
guidelines for maintaining the safety in the work places. Along with this they must
take initiatives regarding the removal of unsafe conditions present in the work place.
From the side of the workers it is their duty to maintain all the safety procedures by
themselves as a part of the safety measures (Lay et al. 2016).
4. As a role of the occupational health and safety professionals the individual must
follow all the safety processes and guidelines so that the health condition of the
workers can be managed in a proper manner. Along with this, the work place health
and safety officer must keep all the records related to hazards for future references
(Mostafa & Momen, 2014).

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References
Boyle, T. (2015). Health and safety: risk management. Routledge.
Lay, A. M., Saunders, R., Lifshen, M., Breslin, C., LaMontagne, A., Tompa, E., & Smith, P.
(2016). Individual, occupational, and workplace correlates of occupational health and
safety vulnerability in a sample of Canadian workers. American journal of industrial
medicine, 59(2), 119-128.
Mostafa, N. S., & Momen, M. (2014). Occupational health and safety training: knowledge,
attitude and practice among technical education students. Egyptian J Occup Med, 38, 153-
65.
Reese, C. D. (2015). Occupational health and safety management: a practical approach.
CRC press.
Zhou, C., Ding, L., Skibniewski, M. J., Luo, H., & Jiang, S. (2017). Characterizing time
series of near-miss accidents in metro construction via complex network theory. Safety
science, 98, 145-158.

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