Risk The Bowtie What is the threat?


These are the actions that will increase the chance of the risk event occurring. When crossing a road the following could be threats: not looking both ways, using a mobile device/ being distracted, being intoxicated, rushing or not using a pedestrian crossing. All will increase the likelihood of being struck by a vehicle.


What are the consequences?


Consequences need to be considered as far as possible to ensure all aspects are covered: death or serious injury to self; car swerves and crashes into other pedestrians; car crashes and injures driver resulting in legal action; multiple vehicle collision. The list is as exhaustive as you make it.


At this stage we have a clear understanding of the risk and what needs to be controlled. The hazard, top event, threats and consequences give us an overview of everything we don’t want around a certain hazard.


Every line through the bowtie represents a different potential incident. Besides containing incident scenarios that might already have occurred, part of the strength of the bowtie is that there is also room for scenarios which have not occurred yet. This makes it a very proactive approach.


What are Preventative and Recovery Barriers?


Barriers are also known as controls. Typically, they sit either side of the bowtie but as shown below, they can be grouped. To the left are the preventative controls implemented to prevent the top event occurring. This may include installing a pedestrian crossing or footbridge over a busy road. To the right we place the recovery controls, the things that will limit the impact if the top event does occur.


In our scenario this may include first aid actions, traffic control to secure the safety at


BOWTIE RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESS FLOW CHART HAZARD


THREAT THREAT THREAT THREAT


BARRIER BARRIER BARRIER BARRIER


BARRIER BARRIER BARRIER BARRIER


Recovery Measures


TOP


EVENT (Incident)


Recovery Measures


Recovery Measures


Recovery Measures


People Asset


Damage


Environment Reputation


the scene of the accident – things that prevent the death of the pedestrian. In most cases the barrier or control will have an escalation factor, e.g the pedestrian crossing is there but what if the pedestrian does not use it correctly or the driver fails to stop at the red light? How can we increase the safety in that event?


What is a response?


Once the controls are in place and escalations are considered, the response can be allocated. What aspects will be impacted by this event occurring?


People, the asset, the environment or event reputational damage. Responses could include:


• Treat the risk (physical implementation – what will that cost)


• Treat the risk (no cost-policy or procedure) • Tolerate the risk • Transfer the risk (insure it?) • Terminate the risk (if possible) • Take the opportunity (doesn’t work with our scenario but might when you use this in your place of work)


There are many risk management tools available, perhaps this one is new to you. It’s worth looking at a little closer.


Rick Mounfield Security Institute


www.security-institute.org


Escalation Factors


© CITY SECURITY MAGAZINE – SPRING 2022 www.citysecuritymagazine.com


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