ACCIDENTS NOT JUST BAD LUCK”

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31061, 17 May 1966, Page 18

ACCIDENTS NOT JUST BAD LUCK”

“While a great many people think of accidents as ‘just bad luck’ and while the governments they elect are likely to have the same attitude, nobody is going to want to spend vast amounts of money trying to trace and remove the precise causes of accidents,” said Dr. H. F. Priest, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Canterbury, speaking at the farm safety course at Lincoln College yesterday.

Dr. Priest said that what was most needed was a change of attitude. It had been estimated that 90 per cent’ of industrial accidents were attributable to human factors. But whereas other causes of death were dimin-

ishing through improved knowledge, deaths by accident remained at about the same level.

Man now seized on new methods of preventing or curing disease but his attitude to accidents lagged far behind. Society tended to admire the man who took risks —the racing driver, test pilot, or high-wire artist—but it did not admire the man whose lack of hygiene invited disease. A similar attitude to accidents should be encouraged.

“The problem is to give a greater sense of immediacy in this matter,” said Dr. Priest. This was achieved in case of large-scale disaster but these could not be “arranged” to keen the public alert. “In terms of propaganda this means that the material has to be good enough, interesting enough, and presented often enough for safety precautions to become a habit,” said Dr. Priest. “We must get away from luck and move towards a causal view.”