A systematic use of information from accidents as a basis of prevention activities

This article is a storytelling itself. A story about how data from accidents and especially accident events can be used in a constructive way in the work for making better prevention in workplaces. It is examples of what actions has been done through the last 20 years, but there is a connection between these actions and the end results, that we see a clearly decline in the number of fatal, serious and all accidents at work in this period.•The fatal accidents has declined from 3.4 pr 100.000 employee in 1985 to 2.0 pr 100.000 employee in 2005.•The serious accidents has declined from 2.4 pr 1000 employee in 1985 to 1.8 pr 1000 employee in 2005.•All notified accidents has declined from 22.8 pr 1000 employee in 1985 to 16.4 pr 1000 employee in 2005.In Denmark the notified accidents are underreported by nearly 50%, but mainly for minor accidents.

But five hospitals have had a registration of accidents at work since 1990 and here we also find a decline in accidents at work from 37.4 pr 1000 employee in 1993 to 32.0 pr 1000 employee in 2005.Some of this decline can be explained by changes in the workforce and industries, but not all. It seems more to be a higher level of safety in the technical equipment and in the observance of safety in the enterprises and on the workplaces.

The public opinion in general is that it is not alright that people are injured at work. This put a pressure in the enterprises management and the political system. The data from accidents are a very important element for keeping this pressure.