The Real Knock-On Effects of an Accident

One rainy Saturday night in March someone attempted to murder my daughter... 

My daughter is an A&E doctor. She was driving to work when a van appeared suddenly on a roundabout. The driver didn’t slow or stop, smashing straight into the side of her car. He was drunk and uninsured. 

She called the police and an ambulance appeared a few minutes later. She called work and told them she would be in A&E that night; but as a patient, not a doctor.

If you happened to be waiting in A&E that evening, this was the knock-on effect:

1. The A&E department now has to work with 1 doctor less. She would normally see anywhere between 10 and 50 patients per night.

2. While the wonderful A&E department are dealing with her, they are not dealing with you. You have to wait.

3. Other patients have to wait, and some of these need serious medical attention. We all know that the sooner there is a medical intervention, the better the outcome.

4. Anyone else coming in by ambulance might have to wait in the queue as they are short of qualified doctors. Their outcome could be fatal. (Which is why anyone who drives under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol is a murderer.)

The other driver called his friend to pick him up, and he arrived drunk too. A chase ensued and they were arrested. I couldn’t make it up even if I tried!

So, my daughter’s car is a write-off and because he’s not insured, the insurance won’t give her a courtesy car. They will pay out in about 5 to 6 weeks, but in the meantime, she either has to ask for lifts or hire a car herself. 

She’s an emergency doctor, not a private doctor. In other words, she doesn’t earn a vast salary. 

So in effect, she is penalised because the driver had no insurance, which is just one of the knock-on effects…

Exploring the True Knock-On Effects…

Imagine for a moment that there’s a bad accident at work. Somebody is injured and carted away in an ambulance, critical but stable. In terms of knock-on effects, who does it affect? 

Morally, it affects everybody. Obviously, there’s the person who's been injured. But there’s also their family, the colleagues who witnessed it. A company has a moral duty to look after its employees.

The knock-on effect for the injured person could be that they're off work and not getting paid. They could be on statutory sick pay, which is around £400 a month. If you have a family to feed and bills to pay, that doesn’t stretch very far. If you're off long-term, what sort of strain does that put on family relationships?

For the company, the knock-on effects are ultimately financial -  even if the direct knock-on effects are legal. For instance, if the health and safety executive do their own investigation and find a material breach, they charge a ‘fee for intervention’ (known as an FFI). They've been charging this since 2012, and they charge from the moment they leave home in the morning until the moment they arrive home 10 hours later. They charge approximately £165 per hour plus VAT for this “service”.

So at the end of the investigation, they say “thanks very much,” and send you a hefty invoice payable within 30 days. (I’m joking, they definitely don’t thank you!)

You also have the knock-on effect of being down a person (not to mention the workload increase on everyone else). You may need to replace the injured employee or pay overtime costs, which are usually time and a half. Or you may need agency staff, which amounts to silly amounts of money to get short-term staffing. 

On top of this, the injured person will probably put in a claim, so your insurance premiums go up. Not only that, your reputation goes down as well. Existing and future clients (not to mention investors) may not be happy. So there’s an employer brand impact as well - the best people never want to work in disreputable environments! 

So there are plenty of real bottom-line costs from an accident. You should consider too that if staff aren't happy, their productivity will go down and absenteeism rates go up. Staff turnover may increase: your best people may go to another company where they feel their lives are more valued.

Even if you aren’t prosecuted, you might find yourself with an enforcement notice such as an improvement notice. Improvement notices go on a public database and anybody can access them. If you're tendering for work, the company you are tendering into will most likely check these out. This enquiry could even be a probe to see what you've done about it before they pick you! 

The HSE could also issue a prohibition notice, which means that work has to stop until things are rectified. 

So the knock-on effects of an accident tend to operate in a negative feedback loop, with one thing compounding another. 

Back to my daughter…

My daughter is resourceful and her job is important to her. And as she says,  “It could have been a lot worse!” Still, this is me, venting my anger, frustration and relief at the bottle bank! Smash smash smash. 

So please remember: the knock-on effects of an accident extend beyond those immediately involved.

Positive Feedback Loops

It’s worth mentioning too that a lack of accidents can work as a positive feedback loop. Everything I’ve said above also works in reverse.

If you're not having accidents because your staff are well trained and working with correct supervision levels in place, the knock-on effects are positive. People learn that you are a good company to work for. You attract and retain the best staff. Your members of staff are motivated and loyal and stay with you. Productivity levels go up. 

Ultimately it's all about giving people the tools to make the right decisions. For health and safety training, including on-site IOSH and NEBOSH courses, head to www.safety-now.co.uk.

Next time we’ll explore the problem of martyrs.

Moira

P.S. I publish these articles every two weeks. Join my free email list to make sure you never miss an update!