National Park Service

Trail Safe Lesson 3 - Error & Accident Causation

Summary

In lesson three we're going to look at errors and accident causation. We're going to see how effective leadership can break what we call the accident chain.

Overview

TRAIL SAFE! is a unique safety training program designed specifically for National Park Service (NPS) Trail Volunteers but is useful to everyone! It's based upon NPS Operational Leadership Training, where the Human Factor of safety is explored. Trail Safe! captures the core learning objectives of the 16 hour Operational Leadership course while allowing volunteers to learn from their own homes on-line.

The Trail Safe! series is found below in eight video lessons, each ranging in length from 18 to 40 minutes long. Viewing the entire eight lesson series will take approximately three hours. Watch them over the course of multiple days, or "binge watch" the entire series in three hours—it's up to you—but please watch them in numeric order from Lesson 1 through Lesson 8.

Lesson 3

In lesson three we're going to look at errors and accident causation. We're going to see how effective leadership can break what we call the accident chain. Accidents are the results of various types of errors, but before we can talk about to reduce accidents we first have to look at the different types of errors that there are and how to understand what come into play.

Trail Types Covered

General. All trail types are relevant.