The Injury Pyramid

When safety is a part of our role, we are in control

What does the Injury Pyramid represent?

It represents the ratio between at-risk behaviors, near-miss events, and injuries by severity.

• At the base of the pyramid are at-risk behaviors which don’t involve incidents.
• Next are near-misses which are incidents without adverse consequences.
• The next three layers are injuries that occur with increasing severity as you continue to go up the pyramid.

The concept illustrated by the pyramid is that a large base of at-risk behaviors predicts a proportionately large number of injuries.  Conversely, a small base predicts few, if any, injuries.

If we want to reduce the number of injuries, or the risk of injuries, then we need to reduce the number of at-risk behaviors.

Another way to view the pyramid is as follows:  Doing something unsafely usually doesn’t result in an accident because there are many more at-risk behaviors than there are injuries.  But the more times we allow unsafe actions to occur, such as failing to wear gloves or using the wrong tool for a job, then the wider the base of the pyramid becomes.  Over time, this increases the probability of an injury.