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18: Loss Lessons: DETERMINING AN ACCIDENT'S PREVENTABILITY A preventable accident is defined by the National Safety Council as an accident where the driver did everything reasonably possible to prevent it from happening. What constitutes a reasonable action is dictated by conditions and circumstances. For example, it is normally not reasonable for a driver to not make a trip, even though that choice would clearly prevent involvement in an accident. However, such action becomes reasonable if the roads are icy and the vehicle has no chains, or if visibility is compromised by heavy rainfall and the vehicle has dysfunctional windshield wipers. Preventability differs from chargeability. Chargeability arises from the violation of a statute such as failure to yield right-of-way or failure to maintain a safe following distance. Preventability makes its comparison not to the minimum level of acceptable behavior defined by statute, but rather to the prudent and careful behavior of a skilled defensive driver. Thus, while a chargeable accident is virtually always preventable, a preventable accident may not be chargeable. An accident is evaluated from the position of each individual driver, so an accident preventable by driver A may not have been so by driver B, and the fact that an incident was legally chargeable to driver X does not mean it could not have been prevented by driver Y. The purpose of accident evaluation is to learn from past mistakes. A driver's accident should be fully evaluated to identify every specific cause and contributing influence. What the driver could have done to remove each contributing factor should be established. It does not matter whether it was or was not his fault or under his direct influence. What matters is whether some action(s) or lack of action(s) by the driver could have removed or negated a factor that directly contributed to the accident. If any such actions exist, they should be assessed for reasonableness in light of all of the circumstances of the accident, including road conditions, weather, traffic, and lighting, etc. Any reasonable action becomes part of the standard for this specific accident; combined they outline what a careful defensive driver would have done in the situation. After what the prudent individual would have done in the same circumstances is established, those choices and acts should be compared with the ones demonstrated by the driver in the actual accident. Preventability is demonstrated at the points where the choices and acts differ. Those distinctions are a source of learning for the driver and for anyone else studying the incident. A preventability analysis format to utilize when evaluating an incident or accident is found on the next page. The data utilized concerning the employee's accident should come from an accident investigation (see Back to Basics 17: Accident Investigation Procedures) performed immediately after the incident. That information should be compared with the preferred actions in the Recap portions of Back to Basics, topic 1 through topic 16, as found on page 2 of each ...Topic. Mark a check in any applicable box or sub-box. Any item so marked normally indicates preventability. The purpose of the evaluation is to determine whether an incident could reasonably have been prevented and to learn from any mistakes made. Mark any applicable box. A mark in any sub-box means the overall statement should be marked. Let the courts decide if the driver is "chargeable" or liable under statute. Use your energies to find a means of preventing a reoccurrence.
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| Original 10/99 |