Oops! I was distracted
Part of an ongoing series dedicated to raising health and safety awareness across the Temple community.
In February 2009, The Health and Safety Committee began conducting monthly injury review panels to determine root causes of injuries and to suggest actions to prevent reoccurrences. Findings of the panel, which are of general value, will be periodically shared with the entire Temple Community.
The panel recently reviewed the accidents of three individuals:
Employee “A” was cleaning a railing on a flight of stairs and explained the cause of injury as, “As I descended the stairs, I was looking at the glass doors at the bottom of the steps; I missed the last step and fell, injuring various parts of my body (hands, knees and head).”
Employee “B” was working on a ladder and described the cause of injury as, “I was descending the ladder with tools in my hand. I was thinking about what I had to do next when I missed the last few rungs of the ladder. When I landed I twisted and injured my leg and hip.”
Employee “C” explained, “I was leaving my building on my way to an assignment. I was thinking about what I had to do as I rushed down the steps. I missed the last few steps; I slipped and wrenched my back. I should have held onto the handrail.”
On the surface, the cause of these incidents appears to be similar (slip, trip and fall) in nature. But after speaking to the individuals who were injured, we found another common theme: each employee was pre-occupied or distracted by their next chore and consequently paid little or no attention to the task at hand.
Statistics show that almost 90 percent of work-related injuries are caused by unsafe acts and that the majority of these are caused by some type of distraction. Mark Edwards, Director of Traffic Safety for the American Automobile Association, states that “somewhere between 25 to 50 percent of all motor vehicle crashes in this country have driver distraction as their root cause.” A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study reported that 80 percent of all motor vehicle accidents are caused by distraction.
In our fast-paced world, distractions can come from various sources. They can originate mentally, visually, and/or audibly. Work responsibilities, (deadlines, workload, meetings), social events and obligations, relationships (friends, spouses, parents, children, in-laws), financial responsibilities (bills, credit, debt) or environmental stresses (noise, signs, traffic) can all re-direct our focus. Two culprits associated with the recent rise of distraction-related accidents are cell phones and IPods. It should be noted that accidents related to handheld devices are not limited only to auto accidents but also include pedestrian mishaps such as traffic, elevator, and stairway calamities.
Work and non-work related distractions can be reduced by utilizing some of the following tips:
- Prioritize tasks, goals and problems.
- Ignore unrelated distractions and focus on the task at hand.
- Breakdown solutions into manageable portions.
- Block out time to devote to individual tasks.
- Know when a drama/conflict is over and when to let it go by not dwelling on what you could have, would have or should have said or done.
This article is part of an ongoing series of health and safety articles aiming to raise awareness among Temple University employees, faculty and students about a range of health and safety issues. This is an initiative developed by Temple’s Health and Safety Committee, comprising members from across the University community. For further information about this article, please contact the Workers’ Compensation Department at 215-204-3295. If you have health and safety questions, suggestions or concerns, please e-mail the Health and Safety Committee at healthandsafety@temple.edu.
