Accident or Negligence
What is the difference between an Accident and Negligence?
An Accident
is a genuine situation which has arisen after all aspect of health and safety have been considered and catered for, and which no-one can be held responsible.
Negligence
is where all due care and consideration has been lacking and due to that deficiency of care a person has been injured or affected.
If an injury which is reasonably foreseen occurs due to lack of action or because of actions of an individual, employer, organisation or area. That person organisation or employer will then be held accountable for the injury and for the compensation.
Reasonably Foreseen
refers to taking a given situation- making a risk assessment, putting precautionary measures in places and ensuring they are adhered to.
Basically as an individual you have to consider that your action/behaviour can affect others and if that action/behaviour results in an injury to a third party because of your action / behaviour then you will be liable for it.
Risk Assessments
This is something we used to refer to as common sense which most people do subconsciously as we go about our day to day lives.
Health and safety over the years has been developing with an aim of ensuring conditions whether at work or in public areas are safe, and that all elements to ensure that safety are adhered to. The (HSE) Health and Safety Executive has all sorts of helpful documentation regarding how to conduct risk assessments, the documentation you need, the standards and qualifications required in many formats. please click here www.hse.gov.uk. for further information.
A huge proportion of Health and Safety at work is merely common sense, which has been formalised. It has been known to go to the extreme where a sign was found in an NHS hospital above a kettle that warned of boiling water!