Assignment Sample on PRS 4212 Accident Case Study 

1. Introduction

A small garage, which is a workshop of motor vehicles, met with an accident recently. The manager of the workshop was Ms Dawn Evans who employed five full-time workers and an apprentice, employed through the local college. The business was not going well as the non-commercial vehicle repairing had decreased. In this context, the manager implemented service for commercial vehicles, which made his trading good to go. One day an employee, Lionel Grant, 17 years old, an apprentice of the workshop fell into a workshop pit during an inspection. Mr. Grant fell from about 1.8 meters height, which caused the broken leg of the employee. In this study, the target was to know the reason for the occurrence of the accident and to stop further accidents, which can raise unacceptable issues. Based on the case study a risk assessment has been done.

2. Background of the accident

The fall of Mr. Grant from a roundabout 1.8 meters could be the reason for his death because the sound of the accident made everyone awestruck. The outline of the Study covers the reason for the accident that needed a thorough investigation. The manager to find out the background of the mishap and to assure that no more such accidents would happen in future did an investigation. After the investigation, it became known that Lionel Grant was employed for 6 months and from that time; he had found many inappropriate and untidy things in the workshop. Mr. Grant’s course of action was to grasp the training of tyre change, repairmen and balancing of wheels. In that duration of 6 months, Mr. Grant had faced many situations where he narrowly escaped many dangers. Whenever he wanted to express the problems, the other staff told him that it was an outcome of his job.

On the very first day when Lionel Grant joined the workshop, he found an anonymous box and took the scent. The scent was so pungent that propelled him to ask about it and to his surprise, he heard from other employees that it was a chemical, which no one should touch, and if anyone does so, his skin will be removed from his hand. The other day he saw an employee smoking inside the workshop and complained about that to the manager (David 2021). The manager told him to make understanding with the co-workers and to acquire knowledge of the trade. The staffs who were smoking frightened Mr Grant not to repeat the mistake. After that, the accident happened when Mr Grant was in a place where no sound can be heard because of the noise of compact air hoses. A vehicle in a rush came towards Lionel and he could not hear the horn for the noise of air hoses, which caused a sudden fall in the pit.

3. Identify the causation of the accident

The accident occurred under Regulation 3(1) of the ‘Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992’, which conveys some instructions. The instructions are based on risk assessment of the employees and safety with two guidance’s. The first one is – the risk of the health and safety of the employees should be maintained (Bai and Lu, 2021). The second one is the health and safety of the person who is not the employee but is in connection with the organization should be tackled.

1. The sound of the compact air hoses – (Direct)

The accident happened because a commercial car came at the back of Mr Grant and blew horns many times. The car driver was skilful enough but the noise of the air hoses suppressed the sound of the horn. As cited by Wallar et al. (2018) that is why Mr Grant was unable to hear the sound and fell into the pit. This reflects the direct cause of the accident as Mr. Grant fell into the pit for the commercial car.

2. Unorganized things in the workshop –(Indirect)

The cause of the accident was the whole system of the workshop and the manager was unable to manage his work. At the time when the driver tried to warn Mr Grant and some workers shouted but nothing was heard as the sound at its top pitch. Lionel Grant was new to the workshop and at the time of his joining the manager ought to provide him with the knowledge of the things of that place properly. After joining the workplace Mr Grant came to know that nothing in that place was an organized manner (Bhusnure et al., 2018). When Mr Grant took the anonymous box and an accident could also have happened as it was unknown to him what was inside the box. If the co-workers would not stop him, the chemical might harm him. This is the indirect cause because this affects the safety issues of the staff and it can bring harm at any point of time indirectly.

Figure 1: Causes of the accident

(Source: Self-Made)

3. Avoidance of the manager – (Underlying)

The workshop was full of unorganized things, which were noticed by Lionel Grant from the beginning of the joining. The things were unknown to the manager and no one made him aware of those things. When Mr Grant saw one of his co-workers smoking in the workplace and complained about this to the manager (Hou et al., 2020). That resulted from a threat for Mr Grant and all those things were unknown to Mr Dawn Evans, the manager.

Several things were in a messed manner, which includes the oil and solvent storage of the garage. For the past 15 years, the oil and solvent storage was being used as the Ingersoll Rand Compressor. The door of that room was usually kept open for enhancement of the ventilation. It was the reason for that loud sound and for that sound; the staff could not hear their voice. Not only the ventilation room but also the place was full of cluttered pipes, old joints and flanges were there which were of no use.

As cited by Black (2019) from the above case study, it can be concluded that the workshop should be organized well and maintained regularly. The manager, Ms Dawn Evans should be more concerned about his workplace so that the risks of the workers are reduced (Wallar et al. 2018). The manager should take steps against any abnormal activity of that place else, such accidents may take place in future also. As per Corradini et al., 2017 the health and safety issues of the employees and the customers should also be checked and take action against any such issues. The complete administrative strategy must be improved as the untidiness and unknown things were abandoned here and there. The above mentioned factors are underlying causes of accident as they are not causing harm directly or indirectly but have an effect on the safety issues of the staff.

4. Outcome of the causation

According to the case study of the accidental case of the garage, there are different types of issues highlighted in the case study that can cause several issues/accidents in the future work process. The main reason for the accident is the noise of the 15-year-old Ingersoll Rand Compressor. This old machine has such defects that cause a loud noise throughout the workplace for which Mr Grant was unable to hear the sound of the car which was the warning sound given by the driver who is also an experienced mechanic. As a result, Mr Grant lost his life and other than this, because of the noise of that machine and the noises of that compressed air hoses those workers ahs to shout to talk with each other. In this case, because of these loud noises, Mr Grant was unable to respond to that warning horn and protect his own life (Case study). The manager also shows ignorance about this matter and do not change that machine and as a result, employees faced several issues on their work performance and cause this accident that break down the whole infrastructure of the garage. Apart from this, it also affects the goodwill of the garage for which they manage has to take proper precaution to assure other workers about the safety of their lives and implement new equipment. The garage has to bear with an overhead cost for this scenario.

The indirect cause of such an accident is unorganised equipment. The workers do not keep their equipment and other harmful things properly at their place. As an effect, the trainee of the garage get contact with those e chemicals and it can cause an accident in the garage premises. There are old joints, pipes and flanges in place which are not properly organised for which affects the working environment of an area manager of the organisation (case study). Other than this, Mr Grant is a trainee who has been working for 6months and he does not know about the equipment and those chemicals and their effect. In this case, Because of the unorganised equipment, Mr Grant gets that chemical without knowing the effect of the chemical. On the other hand, this incident can cause the worst impact on his skin and it can impact the working environment. This is an indirect cause that can create accidents in the workplace.

In this case study of the accident, there is an underlying reason which is not properly mentioned in the case study which was ignorance of the workers towards such issues. They do not complain about these issues towards the manager or to the hierarchy. They are bearing such issues in their working environment and as a result, there is an accident that happened in the workplace. There is an old machine that causes loud noise and the workers have to literally shout to have a conversation with each other. Therefore, they do not keep the equipment and chemical in their proper place. Therefore, they let the door open of that old machine for the ventilation process however, it let the noise spread throughout workplace premises. Workers do not inform their manager about the unlabelled chemical containers and they smoke in front of the engines of the cars. This can create several accidents in the future and it can affect the lives of those workers. Other than this, there is no safety management process that has been implemented by the manager for which there is the least assurance of those workers lives (Karakhan et al. 2019).  In this scenario, for the ignorance of those workers, a manager is unable to know the issues they have been facing in their working procedure.  As a result, Mr Grant lost his life and broke his leg. The manager has to look into these issues and their outcomes and tries to develop a proper working procedure and control planning procedure to mitigate such types of accidents and assure the lives of their workers.

Risk Assessment

The workshop of Mr. Dawn Evans was unsafe for the employees and for the people who visit to the place also. The accident happened resulted broken leg of a 17 years old apprentice of the workshop, Lionel Grant. Mr. Grant fell from around 1.8 meters height into a work pit that can also cause death of him. The management of the workshop, ignorance of manager towards the safety of staff and other people who visit there were the root causes of the mishap. The Noise of the air hoses can cause more harm in future as it makes every sound impossible to listen to. The room, which were allocated for which purpose was not used for the same for example the Oil storage room, was used for Ingersoll Rand Compressor. Many chemicals and untidy things were there making the workshop untidy, unhygienic and unsafe as the chemicals could have burn the skin of the people who touches the unlabelled, dangerous chemical unknowingly. The risk lies in these things and could be improved if the manager takes care of all the things and the place properly. Otherwise, he can also keep an assistant who will manage the system efficiently.

Table 1: Risk Assessment Matrix

5. Possible control system

The case study of having an accident in the garage depicts multiple issues and risk actors in the organisation. In this case study, There are multiple situations that have been stated that create several problematic situations. In this scenario, the manager has to take multiple precautions to provide safety for their workers. This will help them to focus on their work and improve their performance. The manager has to develop a proper control system process to resolve those issues in the initiatives that will help the organisation to prevent such types of accident cases. The possible control plan are mentioned below-

Table 2: Risk Control Measurements

Figure 2: Control system of the organisation

(Source: Self-Made)

6. Strengths and weaknesses of the control plan

Table 3: SWOT Analysis

7. Significance of the safety management

The safety management department and the process are some of the most effective departments to handle sudden problematic situations and resolve those issues to provide safety of the workers’ lives. The manager also has to implement a separate department on resolving risks and monitoring the safety of their workers and employees. Manager has to develop proper policies on their safety management procedures, that provides safety of their workers’ lives and those workers are able to perform their task (Karakhan et al. 2019). These safety management procedures and the safety management system help the garage to mitigate the accident and risk factors for those employees. This reduced the chance of having fatal injuries in the workplace and as a result, the organisation is able to maintain the workflow of their business.

According to the case study, it came to known that this accident has been taken place for the negligence of Mr Grant as well as the workers. The safety management department looks out for those and resolves those risk-related factors that can impact the workflow of the garage as well as employee work efficiency. Therefore, the organisational safety management process notifies the risk related issues and the manner can resolve those issues in the meantime to improve their business situation. Other than this, there is some old equipment presented in that garage and it makes loud noises for which Mr Grant was unable to hear the sound of the horn. Other than this, he does not have proper information about the garage and other chemicals for which he has such a problematic situation. Mr Grant is a trainee in this equipment that is why he was yet to contact with paint stripper chemical (Bhusnure et al. 2018). In this scenario, the safety management can mitigate these issues as they monitoring on the employees work other risk-related factors. A manager has to take proper precautions that will help the organisational employees for which they should have a proper training and discussion session by which the trainee and other workers learn about the process of using those equipment and other chemicals.

Therefore, a manager has to provide feedback on their workers’ performance that will help them to improve either work procedure and safety management the process and guidance to properly the safety terms and policies. The manager is looking forwards to the labelling procedure and changing that 15-year-old Ingersoll Rand Compressor. The safety management process helps the workers to use the new equipment and its features for their safety purpose (Wu et al. 2017). The workers also have to take initiative to provide information about the issues they are facing for using such types of equipment and their problematic situation. This helps the manager to identify employee related issues and take proper decisions to resolve those issues in the meantime.

8. Conclusion

In this report, there is a brief description of the background of the case study and the direct, indirect and underlying reasons behind the accident. There is the outcome of the reasons that have been mentioned in this report. Other than this, there are some possible action plans that have been mentioned that can help the manager to resolve these risk factors and provide safety in the workplace. However, there are some strengths and weaknesses that have been mentioned in this context that help the manager to understand the control planning process. There is a brief overview of the safety management process for the garage. This can able to mitigate the future risk situations and other challenges of workers lives.

Reference

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Recommendation action plan