A ‘ten pathways to death and disaster’ test has established employer culpability was present in all fatalities and serious injuries in Australian coal and metal mining.
Heather Jackson, a researcher at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales (NSW), examined 51 fatal or serious incidents in mines in NSW.
Writing in the journal Safety Science, she noted that unlike multiple fatalities, incidents involving single fatalities ‘tend to place a greater focus on individual behaviour.’
However ‘the structural latent failures of the Ten pathways model were present and generally in substantial numbers. Further, detailed examination of these incidents showed system failures often underpinned individual behaviour/decision failures.’
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