Analysis of the causes affecting the occurrence of occupational accidents in fly-in / fly-out workers of a gas pipeline dispatching project

Introduction: Prevention of occupational accidents is of a great importance. Analysis of accidents and their causes could prevent the accidents recurrence. The study objective was to investigate the causes of occupational accidents in a dispatching project. Material and method:  This research is descriptive-analytic. Data were extracted from the reports of occupational near-misses and accidents recorded between 2013 and 2017 and analyzed using Tripod-Beta model. Then direct, indirect and root causes of the accidents were identified. Based on the causes identified, a questionnaire was developed to analyze the workers’ mental patterns in relation to the real causes, and Friedman test was used to rank the causes. Results: The results showed the falling/dropped objects hit a person, inappropriate working conditions and lack of safety trainings were, respectively, the most important direct, indirect and root causes as per the analysis results. The leakage of flammable and explosive substances, hazardous conditions in the workplace and discrimination in rewards were the most important causes from the employees’ views. Conclusion: Identifying and ranking the most important causes of accidents would help to prevent the occurrence of similar events. Also, the analysis of the causes based on the employees’ mental patterns could be effective in the prevention of accidents.