What distinguishes proactive safety management from reactive safety management?

• A. Proactive focuses on preventing hazards before they occur; reactive responds after incidents
• B. Proactive ignores hazards; reactive avoids prevention
• C. Proactive is only about training; reactive is only about documentation
• D. Proactive and reactive are the same

Answer: (A)

Proactive safety management focuses on preventing hazards before they occur by identifying risks, assessing them, putting preventive controls in place, and fostering a safety-aware culture. Reactive safety management, in contrast, kicks in after an incident or near-miss to investigate causes, address gaps, and put corrective actions in place to prevent recurrence. The key difference is about timing and aim: proactive acts ahead of time to reduce the chance of harm, while reactive responds to what happened and prevents it from happening again. Saying that hazards are ignored, that proactive is only about training, or that proactive and reactive are the same doesn’t fit how safety programs actually operate.