Impact of occupational safety culture on the occurrence of accidents in a selected coal mine

Abstract

Mining-related professions, accompanied by significant hazards that are difficult to eliminate, are characterized by lower occupational safety cultures and higher accident rates, as compared to professions in which the hazard levels are lower or easily eliminated. In such situation it may be assumed that the accident rates are related to the magnitude of hazards and risk and the level of occupational safety culture in each of the professional groups. The main purpose of the paper is to present the dependence between risk-taking, including risky behaviours and the causation of accidents, and, as a consequence, the occupational safety culture. An analysis of accident rates in one of the coal mines was conducted for the purposes of the paper and a questionnaire regarding the risk and risky behaviours. The study encompassed a representative, randomly selected group of people employed at underground. The thesis presents the dependence between risk-taking, including risky behaviours of the employees and the accident rate, related to the occupational safety culture. To make an assessment of the dependence between the two variables, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used. Also the determination coefficient was calculated. The obtained result indicates that a correlation exists between the studied variables.