Cultural Drift and the Occlusion of Electrical Safety

This paper examines cultural drift with respect to occupational electrical safety. It poses the question of how the reduction in occupational electrocution fatalities over the past 40 years could present new challenges in maintaining electrical safety vigilance today, including the impact on electrical-injury-related risk perceptions of workers, supervision, and management. This paper discusses how low-frequency/high-consequence events pose unique challenges for safety management, describes advancements in conceptualizing the accident triangle, discusses how people process risk, lists methods for improving workers´ understanding of their risk, and provides strategies to counteract cultural drift.