Incident/Accident Investigations
Another important responsibility of the supervisor is to investigate near-miss incidents and injury accidents.
Accident Investigation Steps
Although incident/accident investigations are both "reactive," because they occur after the near-miss or injury event, and "proactive," because they also identify hazards and prevent future accidents. Below are important points to remember about incident/accident investigations.
- It's a proven fact investigating near-miss incidents is effective and cost effective because injury and illness costs are not incurred.
- It is never appropriate to conduct investigations just to place blame: to do so is basically a waste of time and will harm the safety management system in the long term. The purpose of all incident/accident investigations should be to fix the safety management system, not the blame.
Although OSHA requires the employer to investigate only serious-injury accidents, it's important to investigate all minor accidents because, what might be today's cut finger can be tomorrow's amputated hand. It's that simple.
The Incident/Accident Investigation Process
Accident investigation is a seven-step process with the ultimate of conducting accident investigations.
- Secure the scene - to make sure evidence is not moved or disappears.
- Document the scene - to gather data about the scene.
- Conduct interviews - to determine events that led up to and included the accident event.
- Develop the sequence of events - to determine exactly what happened in the proper sequence.
- Conduct cause analysis - to determine surface and root causes associated with each event.
- Determine the solutions - to develop immediate corrective actions and long-term safety management system fixes. Discipline is not a long-term solution.
- Write the report - that emphasizes events, causes, solutions, costs, and benefits. Do not recommend discipline. That should be the job of a safety professional and the human resources department after careful analysis of the accident report.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-8. Accident investigations should be conducted to _____.
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