Behavior based accident causationthe “2-4” model and its safety implications in coal mines

Abstract

The literature demonstrates that nearly 100% of the accidents are caused by the “management loopholes” liability. However the accidents are neither accurately specified by the classical accident causation chain models of Heinrich and others nor by the contemporary causation chain theories. Based on organizational behavior and accident causation theories a new accident causation chain the behaviour based “2-4” model is proposed. In the “2-4” model the accident causation chain consists of two separated levels namely organizational and individual behaviour and two stages as guiding behavior and operational behavior at organizational level and two stages as habitual behavior and act at individual level which respectively covers from root radical indirect to direct reasons of an accident. More specifically they include the organizational safety culture safety management system personal safety knowledge safety consciousness safety habits personal unsafe act and unsafe conditions. When the management loopholes are emphasized as the defects of behavioral control the multiple case study method is adopted to empirically analyze the causes of accidents in Chinese coal mines. The results indicate that the accident causation can be accurately located within one or more stages of the “2-4” model thus the organizations can take active and clear measures to effectively prevent accidents.