U.S. Geological Survey Manual

Appendix 6-1

Safety and Environmental Management Risk Assessment Codes

Deriving Risk Assessment Codes (RAC’s). Use the matrix and descriptive definitions below to determine the RAC for safety hazards.
Table 1.1. RAC
Hazard Severity Accident Probability

A B C D

I 1 1 2 4

II 1 2 3 4

III 2 3 4 5

IV 4 4 5 5

Table 1.1. RAC
Hazard Severity	Accident Probability
	A	B	C	D
I	1	1	2	4
II	1	2	3	4
III	2	3	4	5
IV	4	4	5	5

Accident Probability Code Description. Accident probability is classified by an uppercase letter.: A: Likely to occur immediately; B: Probably will occur in time; C: Possible to occur in time; D: Unlikely to occur

Hazard Severity Code Description. Hazard severity is classified by an uppercase Roman numeral.: I: Death, permanent total disability or loss of facility or asset; II: Permanent partial disability, temporary total disability in excess of 3 months, or major property damage; III: Lost-workday injury or compensable injury or minor property damage; IV: Minimal threat to personnel or property, first-aid, minor supportive medical treatment, but still a violation of a standard

RAC Descriptor. Abatement priority ranking based on the merger of the accident probability and hazard severity, i.e., a probability of B and severity of III would equate to a RAC of 3 and be annotated as 3(B)(III).: 1: Critical; 2 : Serious; 3: Moderate; 4: Minor; 5: Negligible

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U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA, USA
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Last modification: 28-Aug-2002@17:03 (kk)