Posted By Richard White This has probably been covered before but can anyone provide authoritative advice (or otherwise) on calculating the cost of accidents to a business?

Posted By Merv Newman The straight answer is no. There is no "typical" or "average" cost of an accident. Companies "invent" or "calculate" some figures just to give themselves some rough tracking method. There is no way these figures can be predicted in advance. Costs depend on culture - a company that is serious about safety will put a lot of resources into investigating incidents and preventatitive actions. They will have fewer accidents but each accident will use up a lot of resources. In contrast, a company which doesn't give a **** will shrug off each accident with no investment in time or other resources. They will have more accidents, but each accident will cost very little - until it comes to court. I see that fines are now becoming equivalent to a years profit. I wonder who had that brilliant idea ! Merv Newman