A foreseeable risk is when a reasonable person in a given situation should know that a specific harm might occur as a result of their actions. For example, if a person handles a harmful chemical without the correct PPE and sustains a chemical burn to their hand, this is a foreseeable risk. A reasonably foreseeable risk is a risk that a reasonable person in the same situation could anticipate in the circumstances.
WHS Regulation requires that a PCBU or other duty holder, who is managing health and safety risks, must identity “reasonably foreseeable hazards” and their health and safety risks. But what does the term “reasonably foreseeable hazard” mean? Perhaps it is a hazard that is reasonably easy to see?
Work activities often expose people to risks that are unknown at the time. As knowledge and understanding increases, these risks become understood. For example, the serious ill-health effects of inhaling asbestos dust are understood today.
In short, workplace risks are not expected to be managed if they couldn’t have been identified or understood beforehand. However, employers are expected to identify and appropriately manage those risks created by work activities that can be anticipated. In most instances, these are the risks that a competent person working in a particular field would be able to predict or expect harm from.
Examples of “Reasonably Foreseeable”
The following examples are of some workplace situations where “reasonably foreseeable” was considered and applied by judges and some of the principles or observations that were referred to and applied by judges in current day court cases. We hope you find them useful in enhancing understanding and working with “reasonably foreseeable hazards”.
The consideration of “reasonably foreseeable” tends to be seen most in cases involving injury and negligence or in determining the culpability of the person being prosecuted for the accident and some examples include:
- A 2-man team from a waste removal company was removing litter from the side of the road. One man collected the litter and the other slowly drove the van behind him. A lorry collided with back of the van and propelled it into the man collecting litter. The judge concluded that the risk of injury was “reasonably foreseeable”
- Boxes of documents that were not needed on a day-to-day basis were stored underneath a worker’s desk. The worker endeavoured to pull one of these boxes out of the stack of boxes and was injured. The judge decided that the boxes jammed tight under a desk were a reasonably foreseeable hazard.
- A worker unloading stone slabs from the back of a truck was seriously injured when 9 slabs fell on him. The judge considered the circumstances of the incident and concluded that the slabs had been incorrectly loaded and the risk of injury was foreseeable.